Cookie Dough 3: This is the Forest Primeval
by DavidB226Morris
Summary: The team at Angel-Slayer face a dangerous challenege when they try to stop two madmen-- one of whom holds an evil that not even they may be able to overcome. A BuffyTwinPeaks crossover. Some chapters are rated R.
1. Forest Primeval prologue

This Is The Forest Primeval Reshaping The Cookie Dough 3 A Buffy/ Twin Peaks Crossover By David Morris  
  
DavidB226Morrisaol.com  
  
Rating: PG-13. Warning: There are some unusually frank discussions of violence and sexual assault. Viewer discretion is advised.  
  
Summary: The team at Angel-Slayer Inc. faces a dangerous challenge when they try to stop two madmen ----one of who holds an evil that not even they may be able to overcome.  
  
Disclaimer: Buffy, Angel, Willow, Xander and all of the people at Angel/Slayer are not mine but rather the property of Joss Whedon and the gang at Mutant Enemy. The characters of Twin Peaks are the property of David Lynch and Mark Frost.  
  
Spoilers: This is an alternative universe as was previously explained in my earlier stories. Possibly anything from the Buffy world could come up. The story also contains major spoilers for the last episode of Twin Peaks and goes on a tangent from there. I will also be revealing the identity of Laura Palmer's killer. You have been warned.  
  
Author' Note: The story I am about to write will force me to wreak all sorts of havoc with the Twin Peaks universe. But then considering the creators weren't very linear when they worked within it, I think I can be forgiven. For my intents and purposes, the events that took place in Twin Peaks happened in the spring of 2002 (which is when it aired on Bravo and inspired me to begin with). The story begins one year later. Also the character of Leonard Kopell is mine and mine alone. Anyone who wants to use him must talk to me first.  
  
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Prologue Another Time In Another Place  
  
There are all kinds of evil places.  
Some of them can be found on Earth. But these are ranked rather low on the scale because they are mostly run by the most primitive of beings. The Black Hole of Calcutta, The Tower of London, Auschwitz and Dauchau, Phnom Penh and the Hanoi Hilton -- all were considered horrible, but most evil beings thought them to be middling at best. Though demons do their best to make "Hell on Earth" a reality, the truth is they consider most of Earth far too primitive to make it possible.  
The real evil places are other dimensions. There are few evil dimensions ----however few is a relative term considering that there are millions of other dimensions but there are a vast number of dimensions that contain evil entities. The trick is reaching them. Some --like Quortoth--- can only be opened by dark magic. Others can only be opened with some kind of mystical item -- like a Key. And others can only be reached through alignments of the stars. In almost every case it takes a great deal of skill and luck for any man to do it. Unless, of course, you specialize in getting around these kind of obstacles.  
When he had been alive, Holland Manners would have left the task of locating these other dimensions to subordinates, people who did this for a -- an unfortunate choice of words -- living. Since his departure from the mortal coil, however, and given the nature of the beings that employed him-- he had found that he had to visit places that would have not have caught dead in (another unfortunate phrase) for the purpose of work.  
As evil places went, however, this wasn't so bad. Granted he had to walk through what appeared to be acres of red curtains, and the light had a tendency to start flashing at random but still the overall effect was one of strangeness rather than direct evil. Under normal circumstances, Manners might have even been comfortable here  
Of course considering that the major source of the evil was not currently residing at this location, it was not surprising that the place seemed less malevolent than usual. And since it was his job to make sure that this remained the case, he had to handle the situation with care.  
He sat on the black leather sofa that finally appeared after much traveling. He knew he wouldn't have to wait very long for them to come. you si  
And they did.  
"Who are you?" said the man who was now sitting in the chair nearby. He was dressed well in a red jacket, white shirt, and leather shoes -- all of which distracted from his being less than half the size of an average man. His voice seemed distorted somehow.  
"My name is Holland Manners. I've come to see Windom Earle," Manners said calmly.  
"What gives you the right to see him?" asked the little man.  
"I represent an association that requires his services. Here is my card." Manners handed the card to the little man. The little man examined it and handed it to a giant who had appeared next to him.  
"What business is this of yours?" the giant asked in that same distorted tone. "We have no business with people like you." He handed the card back to Manners, who noted with only nominal surprise that his card had become a Jack of Hearts.  
"I am an associate of a colleague of yours. I believe his name is...Robert."  
That got the two men's attention. "How do you know him?" the giant asked.  
"Some associates of mine -- let us call them 'lodge brothers' -- are familiar with his work. They would like to see it continue."  
Neither man said anything. But the lights again flickered. When it returned to normal the two men were gone. In their place was a normal-sized man.  
The man wore a torn black suit, his hair had gone shock white, and his expression was completely devoid of sanity. One might think that this place had done it to him, but, as several men could testify, that particular aspect of his makeup had been driven out years before he had come here.  
"Mr. Earle, I presume?" Manners said cordially. Earle turned towards Manners with an expression of what might have been surprise. It was hard to tell because his face was frozen in an expression of pain.  
"You are someone new." Earle spoke in the same distorted as the earlier individuals.  
"My name is Holland Manners. I represent a business that requires your assistance."  
"No one comes here for help," Earle said. "All that you will find is despair and anguish."  
"By a happy coincidence, that is one of the things our firm specializes in." Manners smiled perfunctorily.  
  
"Anyway, how can I help? I can never leave this place."  
"What if I were to tell you that someone has arranged things so that you can walk out of here with me?"  
Earle's expression did not change but Manners could tell that something had changed in the mans body language.. "How...who has arranged this?"  
"Well I'd say a higher power is aiding us, but we both know that 'higher' is not an accurate description of where these things come from, right?"  
Earle smiled. It was a ghastly expression that would have caused a lesser man to run away in terror.  
"Has...has He forgiven me? It's been ages since I've seen him..."  
"Mr. Earle that's the reason that I have arranged your release." Earle seemed a little confused. Manners wasn't surprised. It had probably been ages since he'd had a coherent conversation. "It's a kind of trade: we let you out and you help us let him out."  
"But... He has been free for...a while. He left just after I arrived."  
"I'm sorry to say that your ex-partner has managed to neutralize him for almost all the time that he has been out."  
Earle seemed puzzled for a moment, then his eyes cleared. "Of course. Cooper always had that energy. So he has..."  
"Buried him pretty effectively. That's why we need your help. It will take a certain style to free the genie from the bottle, and we think that you can provide it"  
A new expression was forming on Earle's face. On a normal man, it might have appeared hopeful -- on Earle it looked even more terrible.  
"What do you want me to do?"  
Manners smiled again. They would have to work out the plans, but the deal had just been closed. He got to his feet. "We can discuss that on the way. I'm sure that you would be more comfortable some place where the...lighting is better?"  
"Y-you mean, we can just leave?" It was hard to tell with the distortion, but Manners thought that he could sense joy in Earle's voice.  
"Right out, Windom... may I call you that? Mr. Earle is so formal for a man of your talents."  
Earle barely nodded as he got to his feet. They were heading out, when Earle stopped. "You... you do know that he took my soul?"  
Manners put an arm around him. "Well Windom, in my line of work I find that the lack of a soul is advantageous." He smiled. "It's one of the reasons I sold mine."  
The two men walked toward the curtains. A moment later they were gone...as if they had never been there.  
  
-------  
  
SPRING GROVE DIAGNOSTIC CENTER  
PORTLAND, OREGON  
One week later  
  
He had a plan.  
Admittedly it wasn't a great one -- not like Columbus' one about finding another route to India, or George Marshall's on how to rebuild Europe -- but when faced with overwhelming odds against the forces of darkness, any port in a storm was required.  
Granted after nearly a year he was somewhat foggy about the details of why a plan was required, and just about everything else, but he knew the basics.  
His name was Cooper. He had fought the forces of darkness...and lost. Something horrible (whose name flickered in and out of his consciousness) had somehow joined with him. The only way to make sure that it stayed buried was to bury himself. So he had. He had instructed them to keep this side of him from coming out -- by any means necessary.  
So they straitjacketed him. And drugged him. And, when they thought he was near the surface, shocked him with 200 volts of electricity.  
He had all but forgotten how to measure the passage of time. He could barely manage activities more complicated than reading a simple book or watching television. And, by his own request, he rarely saw anyone who wasn't a doctor. No one was sure what triggered the other's emergence, but he would be damned if he was going to risk the lives of the few people who were close to him.  
Of course if you believed the voices, he was damned already.  
He hated the voices. He hated what they wanted and all that they stood for. But given that he had deprived himself of almost everything else, he had little choice but to listen to them.  
Before he had managed to convince the doctors of the voices and of all that raged within him, they had tried to treat him as though he was a normal man. Once a doctor had invited him into his office. Alone. Oh a security guard was there, but they had reduced the Thorazine dosage to a normal level. So they could have a coherent conversation about what was really bothering him.  
He had tried to ignore the voice. The rage. The force within him screaming. And he had been doing all right -- until he had looked into the mirror.  
And saw him.  
The dark stringy hair. Those horrible eyes. That maniacal grin that showed not merely insanity and rage, but cleverness. The pure, unbridled evil that he was.  
The doctor had been talking to him, but suddenly he could no longer hear him. All Cooper could hear was the maniacal laughter of the other.  
Without realizing it, he had picked up a pencil resting on the doctor's desks. Then, in a motion so swift that the security guard had no time to react, he had brought it down through the back of the doctors hand.. The guard managed to grab him but not before he had managed to hit him twice in the chest. He had been dragged back to his room, alternately screaming and giggling the entire way.  
They didn't allow him pencils anymore. Or mirrors. And they always came to him in groups. Safer for everybody.  
Since then he had existed in a daze. He would sit in a semi-conscious state, and try to take himself mentally away from this place. It wasn't that difficult; before he had come here he had actively studied the Buddhist meditation. He managed to find himself a peaceful, safe location. It was one of his last peaceful moments. Sometimes he was in Sheriff Truman's office. Sometimes it was the Great Northern, but mostly it was at the Double R. In his mind he would sit at the counter, have some strong coffee and a damn fine doughnut and talk with Annie. They talked about simple things: the weather, the upcoming beauty pageant, whether Norma and Hank were finally going to get hitched. Pleasant things. Unimportant things. In this he had managed to find something close to peace.  
But now something was going wrong. Horribly wrong.  
Over the past year there had been frequent gaps in his memory. He knew that even with everything that he had done, occasionally The Other would take control. The overall sensation was as if he was looking at himself from outside. It was like he wasn't in control of himself. Over the past two weeks, however, these periods had been getting longer and more frequent. He thought that perhaps they might have reduced the amount of medication that he was taking. He hoped that was the reason, and not that he was getting stronger.  
Then there were the doctors. He had been here so long they had stopped visiting him on a daily basis. The only people he saw regularly were the orderlies and the guards who came with them. But now the doctors had again started coming by his room with the orderlies. It might not have been so unnerving if the doctors had wanted to talk to him. But they never came into his room. Rather they stood outside and talked with the nurses and orderlies. He tried to calm himself by thinking that maybe all they wanted was to reevaluate him. But he was troubled that he never saw them. He wanted to get a good look at their faces. He had always been good at reading people even in his current condition, and he thought that it would reassure him.  
These factors, combined with a gut feeling that something was off, convinced him that he had to remain on guard. But it was so damn difficult. If he hadn't been dormant for such a long time he might have been better equipped. But then his dormancy was the only reason he was still alive, so it was paradoxical. Or was it ironic? He wasn't sure of the exact terminology anymore He needed to concentrate. If he could just...  
A loud ringing interrupted his thinking. It took him a minute to place the noise. Fire alarm. Probably one of the schizophrenics nearby had pulled it. Just another distraction to stop him from--  
Distraction. He pondered the word for a minute. Why had he focused on that word? He didn't need to go off on some tangent but...  
Maybe it wasn't a tangent. Maybe it was a warning. Maybe whatever gut instincts he possessed, no matter how deluded by drugs, was trying to warn him that there was something rotten in Denmark.  
"Doctor, you really should proceed to the exits. There are other patients...."  
"Look boy, I know that you're just trying to do your job, but I have to see this man."  
Two voices. One of them was Clifford, one of the few orderlies that was permitted to see him. The other voice was familiar, but he couldn't recognize which doctor  
It's not a doctor. Whose voice was that? Not the others, but it wasn't his own either. Maybe it was the last shred of his detective insight begging to be heard.  
"Dr. Lear, I still need to see some kind of papers." They were walking into his room now.  
"All right, I believe I have what your looking for right here."  
He lifted his head.  
In time to see the 'doctor' slash Clifford's throat. The attack was dealt with such precision that Clifford had no time to scream. He just fell to the floor.  
He felt a cold terror spread like ice water through his veins as the 'doctor' turned towards him. His memories had been battered by the year of drug-induced solitude, but he recognized the face instantly. It was one that he had prayed he would never see again.  
"How's that jacket feel on you, Cooper?" Windom Earle said. "I must say I never thought that you and I would have our positions reversed so completely. But then sanity's a funny thing."  
"H-how did you get here..." Cooper feebly asked the man who he had stopped twice before but who had still come away master of the situation.  
"Oh you know, high friends in low places. Or maybe I've got that backwards. Anyway it doesn't make a difference. I'm here now and ready to act."  
"Have...have you come to kill me?"  
Earle smiled that terrible smile that had haunted Cooper in his dreams. "As much as I would like to, I have other plans. Better plans actually. Why settle for one death when you can have a slaughter?" Earle reached into his pocket. "And you, my friend, are going to help me."  
"I'm...not your friend."  
Earle took out a syringe. "I wasn't talking about you."  
And suddenly, it was clear. The haze that had hung over him faded into the ether as the horror of what Earle had come here for dawned on him.  
"No. No! I won't let you! You can't do this!" He began to weakly struggle.  
"I can. And I will." In a swift motion, he pressed the needle into his temple.  
Cooper fought -- it was what he had done for so long -- but the drugs rushed through him like gasoline .He had a moment of coherence, and then... he was gone.  
  
Earle waited for a moment. He knew the effects of this drug from past experience. In a short while the required results would be achieved. In the meantime he thought that it was best that he made sure Cooper was no longer in the building when he woke up.  
"Come on, old friend. We're about to have a great adventure. We're hitting the big time. No more killing in the boondocks,. We're headed south."  
He helped Cooper to his feet. He knew that the fire he had set in the lounge distract for some time, but it was best not to dawdle.  
By the time they realized what had happened, former Not-So-Special Agent Dale Cooper would be long gone.  
More importantly, so would Bob.  
  
----- 


	2. 1 Hollywood Insiders

Chapter 1  
  
Though he hadn't lived as long as some of the people he worked with, Charles Gunn had seen a great deal of things that would have been hard for anyone, with the possible exception of people living in Sunnydale, to believe. Which included fighting the undead on a nightly basis, that he had ended up working to help one of those same undead, that he had seen a pregnant vampire, the sun blotted out, fire rain from the sky, and a couple of apocalypses in the space of a year. Or that he had ended up working at a place that had once represented all the evil that existed in the world. But all those strange things seemed positively normal for the conversation that he was having now.  
"Warner Bothers announced that they are going to do a film on the life of Malcolm X to be helmed by Norman Jewison" Leonard Kopell said, taking a sip from his drink. "Spike Lee pops up and says that no white man can do a realistic version of the life of a black man, especially one as prolific as this one."  
"You don't think that maybe he has a point?" said Robin Wood, lifting his eyes from the pool table. "Maybe there are some things that only a black man can know ?"  
"I am willing to believe that there are certain things that a black man can understand that a white man can't," said Leonard as he put his drink back on the bar, "and that fact may apply in Hollywood. But this is the man who directed 'In The Heat Of The Night' and 'A Soldier's Story.' If there is a white director who is more qualified to tell a story like this, I can't think of him."  
"So what are you implying?" asked Xander. "That because a white man does a good job of painting racial harmony in movies, he is more qualified than a black man to tell this story?"  
"I am saying that Spike Lee bullied a Hollywood studio and a multiple Academy Award nominee from making a movie so that he could do it himself." Leonard finished his drink. "I found it pretty hard to respect him after I heard that."  
In a linear sense, Gunn knew how this discussion of "Malcolm X" had gotten started. He even knew how he had gotten roped into this situation. What he found hard to believe was that the three of them -- men who spent the days and nights fighting against the forces of evil for Angel-Slayer Inc -- were having what was, for all intents and purposes, a normal conversation about something that wasn't related to work. Even odder was the fact that they were all talking like they had been friends for years, when in fact they had known each other for less than a month.  
Had it been up to Gunn, he probably wouldn't have been in this situation to begin with. It wasn't that he disliked any of them. This wasn't how he would have preferred to spend one of their all-too few nights off.  
The whole scenario had actually been set into motion when Wesley and Willow had each taken Gunn aside and asked him to help with a situation that was bothering them.  
Willow had come first. As she had a problem with being direct, it had taken her a couple of minutes to get to the point.  
"How have things been working out with Xander?"  
Gunn wasn't surprised that Xander's name had come up. Though he wasn't as aware of it as some of the others had been, he had known that Xander was having a difficult time adjusting to the loss of two of the most important women in his life. When Xander had come to him of his own free will and asked if he might work training the Slayers instead of in the science department, Gunn had agreed . He didn't know if this particular change would be ideal, but it was clear from Xander's behavior that he needed to change something that he was doing soon or risk falling to pieces.  
Xander had seemed a little livelier after changing jobs (he started showing up to the board meetings more, in any case) but he still didn't seem that animated to Gunn. Apparently Willow had noticed it too.  
"Work is only half the problem" she had said. "One of the big things that we always did at home was hang out together. Mainly at the Bronze... we've told you about it, right?"  
"Yeah. You want to ask him to go club hopping?"  
Willow shook her head. "We've done that. Xander has never had a lot of guy friends. He never complained much about it in Sunnydale, but I know that there were at least a couple of occasions that he said as much. I think now that there are some men that he can hang out with, maybe it would help him regain his balance."  
Gunn realized what Willow appeared to be asking. At first he didn't know if he liked the idea. It wasn't about Xander: he thought that the young man had lot of guts and could be very funny . They had a lot of common threads that could make for lively conversation. But he had so little free time that Gunn wondered if he wanted to spend it with somebody that he worked with rather than the old running buddies he didn't see as much. Then he decided that Xander's current problems mattered more then his feelings  
So he agreed that he would talk with Xander about it. Before Gunn could ask him, however, he ran into Wesley. That conversation was a little more awkward, as all of them probably would be as long as Fred was still trying to decide which one of them she wanted to be with.  
Eventually, he came to the point: "You know about some of the problems we've been having with Leonard."  
Gunn nodded. A few weeks after they had officially set up shop as Angel-Slayer Incorporated, Leonard Kopell had arrived on their doorstep. He had revealed that he was something of a seer, particularly in regard to the people who ran their new venture, and therefore was part of their group. The problem was, after they had saved his life, he was not particularly grateful. He didn't particularly want to associate with them and he was reluctant to help them anymore.  
"We've been having a real problem trying to work with him."  
"The way I heard it, he has the problem." said Gunn. "The guy still doesn't want to hang out with us, right?" Wesley nodded. "You know he may have more sense then the rest of us put together."  
"I'm not saying that I don't sympathize with his problem. But there are other issues to factor in. We need his help in order to figure out what this great evil is and we need to convince him that this is a fight worth having."  
"So what do you think we should do, Wes? If we're going to say that we're the good guys, we can't bully him into joining us," said Gunn.  
"I know." Wesley sighed. "We can't use the stick, so we're going to have use the carrot."  
Gunn didn't particularly care for this metaphor (it sounded a little gay) but accepted it as the Watcher's way of talking. "So what, we're going to bribe him into joining us?"  
"No. We have to convince him that we're good people. That we are his friends. And that, supernatural trappings aside, we're pretty normal."  
"I don't think 'normal' is a word that applies to any of us, but I see your point. What I don't see is what this has to do with me."  
Again Wesley seemed flustered.  
"Has Willow talked to you about... Xander?"  
A picture began to form in Gunn's head. "You know, we've got to figure out a better way to send messages." Before Wesley could speak, Gunn said, "You want me to go to the bookstore where Leonard works and ask him to spend a night out with me and Xander?" Wesley nodded. " "Okay, why is everyone naming me Mr. Swinging Good Times?"  
"Because you are as close to being a normal person as anyone here." said Wesley. "The fact is you're the only person here who's made any kind of friends outside of where you work."  
Gunn thought this was a pretty high compliment, but decided it was better to be cool. "And that makes me qualified to be a party guy?"  
"You're also closer to his age than the rest of us." When Gunn gave Wes a look, he added: "I know that shouldn't matter, but I think it will. You might be able to reach him in ways the rest of us can't."  
Right, cause a white boy from Sunnydale and a brother from South Central got so much in common. Gunn thought but did not say. For one thing, it was rather bigoted of him. For another, he knew that it wasn't true -- the man had been seeing visions of him and his friends for three years. They had that in common at least. And last, but certainly not least, he was better at some social things than the others.  
So after work he had gone to Murder Press and asked Leonard if he had wanted to go out to dinner. The young man had hesitated for a moment (possibly considering all the hidden reasons that could lie behind the offer) before agreeing.  
Later that day, he had asked Xander the same question, casually mentioning that Leonard was coming along. Xander needed less time before agreeing. As an afterthought, and perhaps to balance the fact that he was going out with two white guys, he had asked Robin to come along as well.  
Things had started out a little awkwardly at first. Xander had begun the conversation by asking Robin what it had been like to grow up fighting demons without any real powers. Robin had gotten two words into his response when Leonard said: "Hold it."  
Everyone had turned to him. He shrugged but after a moment said, "Could we please not talk shop?"  
Gunn looked at Leonard. "You know that fighting demons and vampires is at the center of what we do, right?"  
"I am perfectly aware of that, Charles." Leonard said using his first name without hesitation. "And I am aware that vampires, witches, boogedy beasties and other assorted things that go bump in the night are at the crux of your work. However, I don't particularly want to spend the entire night out talking about it. That wouldn't go very far towards to convincing me that this is a nice normal place to work, would it?"  
Gunn looked at Leonard in shocked, though he wasn't sure if it was because Leonard had figured out the point of this get-together before the others had, or because he had actually out-thought Wesley. "All right. We won't talk about business."  
About thirty seconds of awkward silence passed before Xander spoke again. "Gunn," he started awkwardly, "is it really true that you haven't seen a movie since 'Malcolm X'?"  
It was a complete 180 from the previous conversation, but Gunn knew that Xander was good at verbal reversals. "Yeah, that's right." . Robin and Leonard looked at Gunn with varying shades of incredulity. Leonard spoke first. "What, have you been so busy fighting demons that you can't go to a movie?"  
"Well that's part of it, but mainly I was pissed about Denzel losing the Oscar."  
"You've got to be kidding," said Robin.  
"You saying that he wasn't robbed?"  
"Oh he was robbed, but I didn't let that huge oversight stop me from going to see 'The Fugitive'."  
Xander looked at Leonard. "You got a take on this?"  
Leonard thought about it. "Well I think that Denzel gave the best performance of the men who were nominated. However, I believe that there were some men who weren't nominated whose work was as good, if not better."  
"Really?" Gunn was intrigued. "Who?"  
"Well, I'm a bit prejudiced cause I was a big fan, but Jack Lemmon did a hell of a job in 'Glengarry Glen Ross.'  
Leonard, it turned out, was a real movie buff. Using this topic as a starting point combined with some of the information from the Wolfram and Hart entertainment division they spent dinner and most of the evening discussing film, film history, the award seasons and the generally poor state of film and television. Pretty soon they were talking as if they had known each other for a long time.  
"Spike and Denzel...they don't have contracts with us, do they?" Xander asked.  
"No, I checked in on that about a week after we took over." said Gunn. "Wolfram and Hart has been a bit lax in its affirmative action policies. They didn't really start taking on black clients until about three years ago."  
"I guess this is one place where we should be glad that equal opportunity doesn't play a big part." said Leonard. "Do you know the names of anyone you do have as clients?"  
Robin looked at Leonard. "I thought you didn't want to 'talk shop'."  
Leonard looked a little sheepish. "I didn't know this was going to come up."  
Gunn took pity on him. "Lorne's in charge of the entertainment division, so he has most of the details."  
"I actually asked him about it a week ago." They turned to Xander. "What...I wanted him to confirm a couple of names in music." When the stares continued, he replied: "I wanted to know if Britney Spears was really a client."  
"Is she?" asked Robin.  
"No, but Christina Aguilera is."  
"In the film industry?"  
"Let me see: Ridley Scott, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jerry Bruckhiemer, Elizabeth Hurley, Greg Kinnear, John Travolta, Drew Barrymore -- those are the most obvious ones."  
"Any studio heads?" asked Gunn.  
"Paramount, Universal, Columbia, and someone at DreamWorks signed in '99" said Xander.  
Gunn was about to say that explained a lot when he looked over at Leonard. The young man seemed to be zoning out.  
"Leonard, you okay?" He turned around.  
"Yeah, I just... felt funny all of a sudden. "The kid shrugged it off. "Does Wolfram and Hart have anything to do with the Oscars?"  
"I don't know. I think that it depends on the clientele," said Gunn.  
"I hope so. There have been some nominations and awards where the only things that make sense is due to supernatural involvement," said Robin.  
"I guess we'll never know for certain about these things. It's not like the members of the Arts and Sciences are ever gonna explain anything," said Leonard.  
"Actually, something funny happened when Jasmine took over California," Gunn said.  
"Yeah, 'cause when a Big Bad is in charge its a laugh-a-minute," said Xander.  
"It's just that everybody in L.A. was so polite and receptive, there were a lot of weird things going on," said Gunn. "And at one point, the president of the Academy came on TV and apologized on behalf of the Academy for some snubs."  
"What did he say?" Even Robin was curious now,.  
"First, he apologized to Peter Jackson for not nominating him for Best Director, then they apologized for not nominating 'Far From Heaven', 'About Schmidt', 'Minority Report' and a lot of the other good films that year." Gunn smiled in remembrance. "They also apologized to Michael Moore for booing him. Then they started apologizing for some of the films that did win."  
"Like 'The Hours'?" said Xander. "I could never figure why that film was nominated."  
"Actually, they went back a little. I believe they apologized for giving Best Picture to 'Gladiator', 'Braveheart', 'Forest Gump' and 'Dances With Wolves'.".  
"But not 'Titanic'?" asked Robin.  
Gunn shook his head. "They said they had arranged it so that James Cameron would never be allowed to make another film, and we'll just have to be satisfied with that."  
"I'd appreciate having the three hours I spent sitting through that waste of celluloid," said Xander. "Honestly, if it came to a choice between fighting a Chaos demon or seeing the movie again, I'd take the demon. That would be less painful and be over a lot faster."  
"Watch it. We're headed back into work and that's out, right Leonard?" There was no response. Gunn was about to speak when he noticed Leonard. He had not only gotten very quiet, he had begun to appear unusually pale. "Leonard, you okay?"  
The young man didn't reply right away. Gunn was about to ask again, when Leonard spoke. "I'm sorry. It's just. I feel...like something's coming."  
The others gathered around, all of them knowing what this could mean. "Do you feel a vision coming on?" asked Robin.  
"I don't know. Maybe. It doesn't feel like a vision. It seems... stronger somehow. Like some force was... comiiiiiiiiiiii-"  
Gunn had watched Cordelia have visions for two years before she had become part demon. And even after Leonard had told him that his visions were nothing like hers, he still thought that his would at least seem familiar when they hit. Now as Leonard's voice began to simultaneously trail off and grow longer, he realized for the first time that this was a whole new ballgame..  
"iiiiiaaaaahhhhaa...." Suddenly Leonard fell to the ground, quivering like a plate of gelatin. Xander and Robin moved with Gunn to pick him up  
"What the hell is going on?" said Xander.  
"I-I don't know." Was all that Gunn could say as Leonard continued to shake and moan.  
"We-we've gotta do something." said Robin.  
Gunn thought that was a fine idea, he just couldn't think of anything to do that would help. He was about to say so when suddenly Leonard stopped shaking and speaking. Gunn would have considered this good but somehow the abrupt silence seemed worse. It felt like something bad was here... waiting.  
"Man, are you--" He never finished because suddenly Leonard grabbed his wrist. His eyes flashed open, and suddenly it seemed that somebody else was in the room. Someone... not very nice.  
Leonard began to speak, only it didn't sound like him. It was his voice, but it was sounded.  
"In the darkness of futures past  
The magician longs to see.  
One chance out between two worlds,  
Fire, walk with me."  
By the time he said those last words, Leonard was standing very tall. There was a smile on his face that Gunn did not like at all. He didn't know what was going on, or what that gibberish meant, but it sounded bad. It sounded evil.  
"'Catch you with my death bag,  
You may think I've gone insane.  
But I promise  
I will kill again!"  
Leonard began to laugh. A thought flashed through Gunn's head, suddenly, that was so unlike him that he would later wonder where it had come from: That is the laugh of the damned. The laughter lasted only for fifteen seconds or so, but it seemed like an eternity. And then Leonard stopped laughing and he sunk to the floor in a heap.  
Gunn turned towards Robin and Xander. With a single look, he knew that they had felt the same thing he had. None of them spoke for a few seconds.  
"Aren't you going to help your friend?" a strange voice asked. Suddenly Gunn remembered that they were not the only people in the bar.  
"Is he all right?" another person asked.  
Suddenly Xander and Robin were in motion. "Yeah, I'm sorry. Leonard...suffers from epilepsy. He just had a seizure. We should get him home." Gunn realized that Xander was pretty good at thinking on his feet. He was certainly doing better than him a man who had dealt with a seer before.  
"He'll be okay. We just need to get him out of here." said Robin. By now the three of them had picked up Leonard who hadn't really moved since he had collapsed.  
"Leonard? You all right?" The phrase sounded horribly false in his ears. How could anything like whatever that had been possibly be all right.  
Gunn helped Robin turned him over. There was still no response. Gunn was about to ask if there was a doctor in the bar and to hell with the consequences when Leonard breathed out.  
"That one...was a dilly. They didn't say that was included in the package."  
Gunn relaxed a little. It sounded like normal in both tone and message.  
"What the hell was that?" Robin asked as he helped Leonard to his feet  
"I... don't know. It wasn't like any vision that I ever had. I felt..." He shook his head. "I was there but I wasn't there. I can't explain it better than that."  
"What did you see?" asked Xander.  
"A lot. More than I thought I could." Leonard shook his head again when Xander began to speak. "It was complicated. So complicated that you're going to wait until we're back at the office. I only want to tell it once."  
Gunn actually felt a little relieved. As curious as he was about what Leonard had seen, he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to know what that voice meant. Upon thinking that, he realized that he must be really creeped out.  
He then asked the question that all three of them needed to ask even though they all knew the answer.  
"How bad was it?" The question was blunt, the response more so: "As bad as anything you've had to deal with." Leonard paused then added: "Maybe worse"  
  
----------- 


	3. 2 Whatever possessed you to?

Chapter 2  
  
9:57 PM  
There are some hard truths in the world. You don't have to live a long life or fight monsters for a living to know that unpleasant things that live in the world. Willow had seen some frightening things in her admittedly brief time on this earth -- she had once even been the cause of it -- but she had thought that she had gotten past the point when she could be appalled by something.  
Then Xander had come back to the office with Leonard and the others looking unnerved. In itself this was troubling. She knew Xander better than anybody here, and she knew that it took a lot to get beneath his cheerful exterior. While Gunn and Robin were getting some of the high command of Angel-Slayer Incorporated, she had taken Xander aside and asked him to explain. He gave her a recital of what had happened, but the normally talkative boy had a great deal of trouble explaining why he was unnerved.  
"You sure it couldn't have been some kind of vision from the Powers?" she had asked.  
. "It's possible, but...it-it didn't feel like it was a vision that Leonard was having." said Xander  
"What did it feel like?"  
Xander thought for a moment. "It felt like...like a possession."  
"Possessed? By who?  
"I wish I knew."

After the others had been assembled, Leonard had looked over them--- especially in Dawn's direction. "I....I don't think that I can talk if...if they're in the room," he finally said with some reluctance.  
For a few seconds no one knew who he was referring to. Then he pointed to two of the new Slayers who had come -- neither of whom was over eighteen -- and Dawn..  
All three girls were understandably insulted. Dawn especially. "Hello, we've fought the First Evil. You don't think we can handle this?" Everyone else was about to speak in their defense when Leonard stopped them.  
"I know... what you've been through. I know you're strong. But there are some things... that can be worse than vampires and demons. Some things that you think you can deal with, but..."

Several of the teens were becoming concerned. But Angel, who perhaps knew better than any of them the kinds of evil that there are, came to his rescue. "How horrible are the deaths?" Everyone seemed a little shocked that Angel had figured it out...except for Leonard. again, bring this para up to the previous statement. actions should go with speech.  
"Very bad." And then, realizing what he had confirmed, he started to talk. "Two months ago, somewhere in Oregon--- I don't know where exactly--- a woman named Laura Hodges was brutally murdered. Among other things she was strangled, stabbed at least a dozen times, sexually assaulted and she had her hair almost scalped from her head." He stopped as if the nature of the crime had shocked him, which it probably had. "Her body was found floating in a lake near the border, wrapped in plastic."  
Softly, in a tone that disturbed Willow even more that Leonard's message, Buffy spoke up "How old was she?  
"Nineteen." He let this news sink in. "Two weeks later in Lewiston-- "When some people looked confused, he said: "It's in the northern part of the state. A girl named Donna Northrup was found floating in Shasta Lake in a similar condition. Ten days later near Sacramento another girl was found in Folsom Lake. This girl was unidentified because her fingers and face had been...."  
Wesley held up his hand. "How many girls have been killed?"

"Five."  
"Why haven't we heard anything about this on the news?" Willow asked.  
"None of the victims had anything in common aside from being young girls. Local law enforcement has no idea who could have killed them and they don't want to start a panic. But mostly its because the FBI have been keeping details about the murders suppressed. Officially they are doing so because they want to protect the families."  
"And unofficially?" asked Faith.  
Leonard gave her a half-smile. "Well there are two reasons: They believe that the identity of the suspect could cause considerable damage to the Bureau."  
The penny dropped. "Are you saying that the man that killed these women is connected with the FBI?" said Xander."  
"It's not just one man. There are three individuals responsible for the trail of murders that has been heading South."  
"And they are all former FBI?" Giles asked.  
"Two of them are. In fact they used to be partners in the Bureau. The older one is Windom Earle. He was eccentric but considered one of its most brilliant minds -- before he snapped. Before he began this murder spree, he was responsible for several deaths while an FBI agent. He was institutionalized, but broke out and began another rash of killings before disappearing again. You'll have to check the FBI database to get all the details."  
"And his partner?" Buffy asked.  
"Dale Cooper. He helped track down Earle in both his earlier extravaganzas. He was considered pretty sharp as well. I'm not entirely sure what happened to him the second time, but I do know that his last official action in the Bureau was rescuing a young girl whom Earle had abducted. Shortly afterward, he was institutionalized."

"All of this came to you in the vision?" said Wesley. Leonard nodded. "They're not usually this detailed, are they?"  
"No, and I'm not entirely sure that this one came from the same place as the others." Leonard seemed as baffled by this as they were. "The others, it all came in flashes—random images, someone speaking. This is so detailed like I'm reading about it in a newspaper. Its makes me think— I don't know, maybe its coming from somewhere else."  
Giles seemed like he wanted to follow up on this, but Angel put his hand on his shoulder. "This may be important but right now these murders are more important than whatever's sending these visions." He said  
"He's right." said Buffy. "Which one of the G-men is committing the murders?"  
  
Leonard smiled humorlessly. "In once sense both of them are committing the murders. In another sense neither is." "smiled humorlessly" as an alt-phrase?  
The group looked around at each other, and Leonard, completely nonplussed. Buffy raised her hand. "I don't think you want to get all cryptic on us now."  
"Yeah, this isn't an ancient prophecy so give it to us straight." Xander added.  
Willow did not get angry. A very nasty idea had just occurred to her. She looked around and saw that Angel and Giles got it to a degree. "What aren't you telling us?" she asked.  
"For one thing Windom Earle was missing and presumed dead for over a year. They searched the forest where he was last seen from end to end and found absolutely no trace that he had even been there," said Leonard.

"So? What does that have to do with anything?" said Dawn.  
"People can vanish off the face of the earth." He looked at Fred. "You've seen it happen. The question is what do you have to do to pull it off?"  
"He opened a portal. Is that what you're saying?" Fred had been getting more and more unnerved by the discussion and Willow thought she was near the breaking point. She wasn't the only one. Willow was starting to fee a bit wound up herself. again with the odd Willow   
"Sometimes you don't have to open them. Sometimes all you need is to know where to look," said Leonard  
"You're getting off the point," said Angel.  
"Wait a minute." Wesley had gotten it too."Maybe he isn't  
"Would you mind sharing with the rest of the class?" Faith said, exasperated. t  
Giles spoke up: "Leonard said three individuals were responsible for the deaths. He only gave us two names."  
"Two men, but three killers," said Wesley. "Who's the third?"  
"More than a year ago, Windom Earle took an innocent to a place that was so twisted and evil it couldn't be found in this dimension. Dale Cooper followed him there. When he emerged he had a part of it inside him. Somehow he kept it in check for a year before Earle found and released them. This entity is out now. It has a blood lust that is beyond belief. "Leonard looked at them. "And two days ago, the three of them drove into Los Angeles."  
  
1:56 AM  
Doing research turned out to be more troublesome than they had thought. Giles had insisted that they do some studying on the demon, but since Leonard could tell them little about it -- except that it bore the innocuous name of Bob -- they had come up with nothing. It was up to Willow and Fred, who had the bright idea to hack into the FBI archives and find out everything that they could about Windom Earle, Dale Cooper and the case that had nearly destroyed both of them.  
"All right, here is what we know about the last case Special Agent Cooper worked on," Willow said as they all sat in the boardroom. The mood was grimmer than the usual boardroom meeting. Willow knew why. A vampire or a demon killing someone was bad, but the idea that the force they were dealing with was mainly human -- one would have to be made of stone not to be sickened.

"Last February, in the town of Twin Peaks -- that's a small town in the northwest corner of Washington -- a girl named Laura Palmer was found dead, wrapped in plastic floating in a nearby lake. She was seventeen." Fred waited for a reaction but there was none. "She had been battered, tortured, raped and finally killed. The same day that her body was found, another girl Ronette Pulaski -- she went to school with Laura, as it turned out -- walked out over the state line just clinging to life. Immediately after she was found, she lapsed into a coma." Fred was being pretty linear for her which was sign number 867 that something disturbing was going on.   
"And Cooper was called in to investigate these...." Giles said. For some reason, he was having trouble finding an appropriate word. "... attacks?"  
"Yes, but not just for that reason. A year earlier, in a different part of the state, girl named Teresa Banks was murdered under similar circumstances."

"This was a serial killer?" Buffy asked in disbelief. Perhaps it was because of the ages of the girls, but she seemed to be having a little difficulty processing this. Some people might have been bemused that this strong woman could be brought down by this, except that Willow was feeling the same way. "That is what Agent Cooper believed. But, as the case developed, he began to think that there was more to it," said Fred.  
"Such as?" Angel asked.  
"Laura and Ronette were apparently tortured and killed in an abandoned train car outside of town. They found a message written in blood that no one understood." Willow paused. "It read: 'FIRE, WALK WITH ME.'"  
There was no obvious reaction except that Leonard, already pale, turned a little whiter.  
"Laura Palmer was sort of like Cordy." No one reacted to that, not even Angel. "She was a high school princess. Homecoming queen, jock boyfriend, did charity work on the weekends -- the kind of girl everybody hates a little because their lives seem so perfect." Fred gave a half smile that disappeared quickly. "But it turned out that she had been leading a double life. She had a secret boyfriend, she worked for the local drug dealer and she occasionally worked as a prostitute at a nearby casino. More than that she had recently, according to her diary, been having dreams about a strange man named Bob."  
That got everyone's attention.  
"Cooper knew about Bob?" Giles asked.  
"Eventually, because of a series of dreams that he had, along with experiences that he described as supernatural, he came to believe that whatever killed Laura and the other girls was some kind of evil spirit. While less dangerous in its natural form, it was capable of occupying a corporeal body for extended periods of time. In this case he had been in the host for decades." Willow paused. She knew what the next question was, and she really didn't want to answer it. She had thought that she was past the point where she could be shocked by anything, but this...this was something worse.  
Eventually, Gunn spoke: "Whose body did Bob occupy?" He spoke in the way someone does who doesn't want an answer to the question he has asked.  
"Bob's host -- the tool that he used to kill those other girls -- was Laura Palmer's father."

For a few moments there was silence as they all took this in. Then Dawn got to her feet, ran to the sink and vomited. Buffy rose as well to check on her sister. A couple of the others got up too. They didn't look ill but they seemed sick in another sense of the word.. Willow didn't blame them; she felt like taking a shower. changed "They didn't look ill but they seemed to be demonstrating that they were sick in another sense of the word." to "They didn't look ill but they seemed obviously sickened."  
Eventually Dawn and Buffy came back to the table. "Should I... Should I keep going?" Willow asked timidly, almost hoping someone would say no.

"It's.... it's okay." said Dawn weakly. "I just...you know. It got to me."

"You don't have to hear the rest of this" Angel told Dawn. "I don't think it's going to get much prettier."

"I'm not sure that I want to hear the rest of this."  
Everyone had looked at the source of the comment, somewhat surprised. After some convincing by both Faith and Fred, Andrew had been allowed to attend board meetings . Over the past two weeks he had been watching, mostly unsure how much he could participate. This had caused him to forget his fears but he had not been that vocal until now.  
"I know that I'm in no position to be revolted by killing, but this...this is a perversion even by the standards of murder. That something, anything, could make a father do this to his own child... It's..." Andrew groped for words. "Even for something inhuman, it is disgusting."  
"How sure was Cooper that Bob was committing the crimes?" asked Wesley.  
"Cooper was pretty sure that during the killings, Bob was in control of ... the host, and that he was completely unaware of what he was doing," Fred answered. "He appeared in his true form to Palmer's wife, Laura's cousin, and Ronette Pulaski. It was as if he showed himself to people whose minds were in agony somehow. Like he tapped into the subconscious of the girls he..." She couldn't finish.

"How did Cooper stop Bob?" asked Angel  
"He didn't." Everyone looked at Willow in surprise. "He figured out that Bob had used Mr. Palmer to kill these women, but when he arrested...them, Bob fled his body. The shock of his departure and the realization of the destruction that he had helped cause killed Leland Palmer almost instantly."

"And Bob disappeared into thin air," Xander said bitterly. "Isn't that just like an evil spirit?"  
"Wherever he disappeared to, it couldn't have been that far away otherwise Cooper could never have found him,"Wesley pointed out.  
"Yeah, how did Cooper find him?" asked Angel The vampire was beginning to seem a little on edge himself. He was twisting a paper clip into a straight line, something that he never did.   
"And how does this Windom Earle fit in?" added Gunn.  
This, at least, they could answer. "Around the same time of the murders in Twin Peaks, Windom Earle escaped from the institution he was being held in." said Fred.

"What did he do to get thrown into one of those places?" asked Buffy.

"Well several years earlier Earle and Cooper were partners. Earle's wife witnessed a crime and Cooper was assigned to protect her. They... had an affair."  
"And Earle found out about it," surmised Giles.  
"Supposedly, he brutally attacked Cooper and murdered his own wife" Willow confirmed. She didn't much like this part either. "In order to avoid prison, Earle supposedly faked his insanity. Cooper believed that after enough time Earle truly did lose his mind. "  
"But he still held a grudge against Cooper," Faith stated curiously.   
"When he escaped he began playing mind games with Cooper," Fred said. "I think I'd better add that Leonard was right: Earle was a genius. The fact that he might have lost his mind didn't change that. Apparently he hid in Twin Peaks for several days with no one noticing him, even though several townspeople had seen him. He also managed to murder three people without leaving a trace except what he wanted to be found."  
"All of this would have been bad enough on its own..." Willow sighed. It was going to get tricky from here on. "...but Earle had a very interesting set of beliefs. He thought that there were places where the layers of reality were worn thin. Places where evil ruled."  
"Other dimensions?" asked Angel.  
"Sort of. He called one of these places the 'black lodge'." Again the only reaction came from Leonard as he notably flinched. Willow waited a second before going on. "Earle believed that these places could be accessed if you knew where to look and when to do it"

"And Earle figured out how," Buffy said. "Did Cooper believe this?"  
"I'm not sure, but according to his notes he came to think that there was something evil in those woods surrounding Twin Peaks. Something that wasn't right," Fred answered. "During the course of his investigation, Cooper and some of the local law enforcement came across a series of cave paintings that he believed were connected to this 'black lodge.'"   
"Eventually Earle finally struck against Cooper," said Willow. "At a public event he abducted a young woman named Annie Blackburne. Cooper had become friends with her and in Earle's eyes that was enough reason to take her."  
"Did he kill her too?" asked Giles. Like most of the others he was hearing this for the first time..

"No but he almost did something worse. He used his knowledge of the black lodge to take Annie there. Cooper had no choice to follow. He found it and managed to get Annie out." Fred stopped. "And that's all we know. Cooper never wrote another report after Annie was abducted. Two weeks later he committed himself indefinitely to Spring Grove in Portland."

"An insane asylum." said Angel.

"You don't say 'insane', you say 'mentally unstable'." said Fred. "And you don't say 'asylum', you say 'diagnostic health center.' "

They all considered this.

"They sent him to the loony bin.' Buffy said.

"You got it." said Fred. "Earle was never seen again and was presumed dead. According to the FBI, that's still true. Earle's name doesn't come up in any Bureau reports even when he supposedly broke Cooper out of the institution."  
"Well we can guess the rest about Cooper in any case." Wesley said with a shrug. "If this 'black lodge' really was an evil dimension its likely that Bob lived there. In a place that was a confluence of evil, it would have been difficult for any man to resist."  
"But Cooper was aware of that. Otherwise why institutionalize yourself?" Xander pointed out.  
"And what about Earle? What happened to him?" asked Faith.  
There was a moment's pause. Then Andrew spoke. "Maybe he made a major miscalculation." When everyone looked at him, he reddened but went on: "A person can be bad at heart, maybe even by his nature, but that doesn't make it true evil. Maybe he realized that what he had found was something that was beyond even his darkest fantasies."  
They all thought about this for a while. "So you're saying that the darkness found him unworthy, and punished him." said Willow.  
"I'd say that's as good an explanation as any," said Andrew.  
"Andrew speaking reasonably about darkness? The world has gone mad." Everyone turned towards Xander. "I'm sorry, I thought the mood could use a little lightening."  
The group did what they normally did when Xander delivered a bon mot and moved on with the conversation. "But if that's the case why would it release him after all this time?" Wesley asked.  
There was another thoughtful pause. Then Leonard, who had been silent through all this, spoke. "Because something or someone thought that he could play a vital role after all."  
"You mean breaking Cooper out of Spring Grove?" said Faith.  
"That... and maybe to make sure that Bob is handled correctly. The thing that took me over was very sly but it was also very scattered. Maybe Earle's job is to make sure that Bob aims his weapon in the right direction."   
"That's going to make our job a lot tougher." Everyone looked towards Buffy.  
"Excuse me?" said Gunn.  
"Tracking down and stopping Bob."  
Though Buffy was no longer in charge, everyone still looked to her as a voice of authority. Even the LA crew, who normally deferred to Angel, had begun to treat her words with the same wisdom they did Angel or Wes. No one would out and out say she was wrong...except for the one person who hadn't known her that long.  
  
"Are you serious?" said Leonard. Buffy looked at him with genuine surprise in her face.  
"Wait a minute. You're telling me that after all this, we're not supposed to do anything?" said Buffy, a little exasperated now.  
"What was the point of the vision if not to do this?" said Xander.  
"This wasn't a vision." said Leonard. "It was a warning. It didn't tell me about these killings and these people because we're supposed to stop them."  
"Then why..." started Robin. Leonard didn't let him finish..

"It was telling us to stay out of the way. I don't think the Powers sent me this. I think it was Bob. He was saying: 'Fuck with me and I'll do to them what I did to you.'"

Everyone seemed to think about this for a moment -- except for Buffy."So what? This thing may be evil but we've faced worse."  
"Buffy this isn't a vampire or a demon or even some monster threatening to swallow the world," said Angel. "This is a man."  
"You really think that this thing is human?" said Xander with disgust.  
"No but the person that's hosting it is," said Giles. "You heard the reports: in order to kill it we may have to kill this man Cooper. Are you prepared to do that?"  
It was a very serious question. Willow knew very well that while some of her friends and colleagues -- including herself -- were capable of killing another human being, Buffy might not be one of them. She had been brought to the brink of doing so several times, but she hadn't crossed that bridge yet.  
Buffy thought about it for some time. She was about to respond when Leonard spoke: "Maybe she can, maybe she can't. Doesn't matter one way or the other."  
Everyone looked at him as if he had grown an extra head. "What are you saying?" asked Wesley.  
"I'm saying that this thing likes violence. All forms. Cooper's death would just be a part of this. Bob would be pissed at losing his host, but that would only last until he found a new one."  
"And L.A. gives him fifteen million people to choose from," finished Angel. "We have to find another way."  
"There is no other way." Leonard spoke as if the subject were closed.  
"You don't know that," Fred said.  
It was the wrong thing to say. Leonard walked toward her. "Yes I do. We're not going to stop that thing. Chasing after this it only guarantees that we will add to the body count it's racking up."  
"Leonard, I know you're scared, but we've been doing this for a lot longer than you have." Willow tried to express her concern gently. We've faced unbeatable foes before; we've dealt with apocalypses on a weekly basis. Give us time..."   
Leonard cut her off."And you'll get killed." His tone broached no argument.  
Unfortunately, these were people who loved to argue.  
"Look man, we know--"   
"NO! YOU DON'T KNOW!" Everybody stepped back as Leonard began to shout. "That thing--- that aberration was inside me! It was in me for less then two minutes, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to sleep or eat again! This isn't some evil creature, this is pure evil!" By now, Leonard was shaking and tears were rolling down his cheeks; none of them thought that he was aware of either of them.  
For a moment everyone was unsure of how to deal with his hysteria. Willow didn't think in all her years of saving people she'd seen a man become so hysterical. Finally Dawn walked over to him and tried to hold him. The sight of this teenage girl trying to comfort a much older, and bigger, man would have appeared amusing; most of them were encouraged by it.  
"You know what Buffy and the others have been fighting this last year?" Dawn asked.  
Leonard didn't speak but he nodded.  
"You know what Angel and his friends were dealing with ?"  
He nodded again.  
"We were facing impossible odds against something that could not be defeated. I won't lie and tell you that it was easy. But we did prevail." Dawn looked Leonard in the eyes. "I won't pretend to understand what happened to you, or that I am not disgusted at what its done. But everything has some weakness. Even this.

Leonard made an immense effort to collect himself and finally he seemed better. Dawn walked back towards the others who had all backed away after Leonard's outburst. Buffy looked at her with a mixture of pride and astonishment. "Where the hell did you pick that up?"

Dawn gave her a smile that seemed sad somehow. "Like Andrew said, on the Hellmouth you grow up fast."  
"Yeah, you do."  
There was another pause. Wesley broke it: "I think how to handle Bob is a secondary issue right now. Our first step should be locating Cooper and Earle."  
"Good luck," said Fred. "Like we said, these guys are good at hiding in small towns. Among fifteen million other people--"

"Yeah. It'll be tough," Gunn said. "It's too bad that we don't have a vast organization filled with people who are good at finding things. Oh wait," he said snapping his fingers, "we do."  
"Not to bring you down, but where do you suggest we have them start looking?" asked Faith. "I mean it's not like we can account for every single person in L.A."  
There was an awkward pause: "Well--" Fred began.  
"Get out of here! We really have that kind of outfit?" said Faith.   
"We do. But even working at maximum capacity it would take a couple of weeks before they were done," Giles pointed out.  
"And we have to assume that they will kill before then," said Angel. "We need a place to start looking." He looked towards Fred and Willow. "Do we have any clue as to where they might stay?"  
Willow thought about it. "When he was in Twin Peaks, Cooper believed that Earle was hiding in the woods around the town. Maybe he found some kind of cabin."  
"Well he wouldn't hide in a forest but he and Cooper will need some kind of base of operations," Fred reasoned.  
"Start with motels. Places near the edge of the city," said Angel as he got to his feet.  
"Assume that it happened in the last three days." said Gunn as he got ready to go the computer  
Slowly the 'board' of Angel-Slayer Inc. began to work on locating the two rogue agents -- and whatever thing possessed one of them. Most of them were hoping that the routine of working would help them forget the nature of the monster they were facing.  
They didn't succeed.  
  
It was hard adjusting to traveling with an insane mass murderer, but Windom Earle had become an expert at changing his plans.  
It was even harder to put murders on a timetable, but those who had freed them had insisted on this as well.  
Earle couldn't think what kind of law firm would back the systematic string of murders that they had begun or why they had insisted on committing them near California. The truth was, he didn't care much. The whole idea of being free after so long in captivity -- being able to eat and drink and kill -- was wonderful.  
He didn't ask Bob what he felt about it, but he could imagine that he felt the same exuberance.  
So when they found what seemed to Earle the most ordinary motel on the outskirts of L.A., neither was surprised when they found a brown manila envelope instructing them what to do next.  
Especially when they saw the photographs that the envelope contained.  
"Look at all the pretty faces. All the beautiful girls." Bob hadn't spoken much since they had opened the envelope, but this had roused him in a way that very little had. Earle wasn't surprised. He knew that Bob had a taste for young meat.  
"Yes. All the lovely ladies. But not just ordinary girls. These girls are fighters. Warriors if you believe the intelligence that we've been given."  
"I like rambunctious girls," said Bob. "They taste better when they finally go."  
Earle didn't think that Bob was being literal and didn't care. Catching them was his job. What happened next... That was up to Bob.  
"Yes. Pretty, strong women. But they say..." He took out the photograph that had been marked 'Handle Carefully.' "....they say that She's the strongest."  
Bob looked at the photo with delight as Earle knew he would. He knew Bob had a thing for blondes.  
"Break her and the rest will soon follow," Earle told him.  
"She's stronger then she looks," Bob said.  
"Yes. Yes she is." Earle smiled. "But that will make her defeat all the sweeter." He looked at the photo. "But you've got to wonder about her parents. Giving their child a name like this. Let's call her by her middle name. I know that appeals to you."  
For a moment it seemed that Cooper was trying to break through, but the moment quickly passed. Again Bob smiled.  
"Turn off the lights, Anne. Bob is coming for you."  
  
--------


	4. 3 The motel and the tape

Chapter 4 10:40 A.M.  
Even with all of their resources, it took Angel-Slayer Inc. nearly ten hours to find a link that led them to Earle and Cooper. They figured that the two former agents would be using cash instead of credit cards and that they would be in as obscure a motel as they could find. Buffy knew that if they waited, the murderers would make a move that would expose them. The problem was that when they made their move, someone was going to die. And she had no intention of letting that happen.  
Ever since he had learned what Cooper and Earle had been doing Angel had been worried. Not about the demon -- although he had to admit he was troubled by it -- but by Buffy's reaction to it. Like Willow, he was personally familiar with the kind of horrors that Bob was capable of. Indeed he had brought down this kind of bloody slaughter for almost 150 years. It wasn't the actions that troubled him as much as who was carrying them out. t. Angel knew that if Bob had been a demon or a vampire or anything supernatural, she would have been able to adjust to it. The idea that in order to stop these things she might have to kill a man -- that was something Angel didn't think she could deal with. For all the horrors that had turned her into a battle-scarred veteran at twenty two, she had not taken a human life. She had come close many times but she had not yet crossed that final border. He wanted to spare her that if it were possible, but he didn't know if he could.  
He had tried to bring it up with Giles or Wesley, but they had all been so fixed on tracking down Earle and Cooper that they had brushed his concerns aside. He had however, gotten assistance from a less likely quarter.  
Since she had begun working with Angel, Faith had gone out of her way to do things above board. For all of the progress that she had made, she knew that she still had a lot of ground to cover. However, while the others had begun the process of tracking the rogue agents down she had deliberately pulled Angel into his office.:"I don't how to say this, so I'll just be blunt. Do you think that this demon Bob is as bad as Leonard says it is?"  
Faith had been frank. Angel followed suit. "If Cooper is a demon, he's as bad as they come. If he isn't, he's worse."  
Faith wasn't happy to hear this and started doing pacing before she asked her next question. "Do you think that we may have to kill him to stop him?"  
"Probably."  
By now Faith had walked to the window on the other side of his office. "We can't have Buffy on this case." Angel was actually relieved for what Faith had just said. Nevertheless, he put up the argument that Buffy would have made. "You want me to order Buffy to stop doing what she does?" He didn't think Buffy would take an order from him. She'd probably kick his ass for even suggesting it, but he had to at least put it out there.  
"B's never taken an order willingly in her life." A small smile creased Faith's face. "If the President came down from DC and told her to 'Do something or I'll throw you in jail,' she'd be writing me for tips on how to survive inside." The smile disappeared. "She won't do it. Especially not this time."  
Angel walked over to the window next to her ."You sure?"  
"You saw the look in her eyes. She's gonna stop Bob no matter what .. And if that means killing Cooper, she'll do it."  
"You got all this from half an hour of Fred and Willow reading the files?" Angel said incredulously  
"No, I got it from one look at her face." Faith spoke with a passion that Angel hadn't thought she had. "You and I both know what the look of someone who is going to take a life. It's in her eyes." Faith took a deep breath. "I saw it when...when she tried to kill me. For some reason, she got an out for it. She shouldn't have been spared just to kill this... thing."  
Angel knew what Faith was getting at, but he also knew about what happened if you got in Buffy's way when she made up her mind to do something. "How do you suggest we stop her?" he said without sarcasm.  
Faith looked out the window. "One of us goes with her when we start searching for Bob. If an opportunity comes up, whoever's with her..." Faith took a deep breath. "... takes Bob out."  
Angel, who had been willing to do exactly that before, suddenly became alarmed at the implications. "You really think that should be done?"  
"You and I both know wha5t killing someone does to you. Do you really want to see that happen to Buffy? She's retired. She shouldn't have to deal with this anymore. Not over this abomination."  
Faith didn't normally speak so eloquently. If she was that troubled --  
  
"And we are?" said Angel.  
Then Faith did something that Angel had not expected. She gave him a sad smile and put her hand on Angel's shoulder.. "We already have burdens. She doesn't need this one."  
Angel didn't like it, but had silently vowed that if it was at possible, he would deliver the killing blow. After their computers spat out a possible location for Cooper and Earle, Buffy had announced she was going to find them. Angel had been about to insinuate himself into going with her when Giles announced that he was going too. Angel looked at him and saw that he shared the same concerns.  
In the end five of them went to the Veronica Lake Motor Lodge, Willow and Gunn choosing to come along as well. Since dawn had long since passed, Angel had had to use one of the specially modified vehicles from Wolfram and Hart that, like his office, had glass which did not reflect the sunlight. It seemed all of their manpower would be for naught, however, when they arrived at the room the clerk had said was Cooper's to find nobody there.  
"I suppose it would've been too much to hope for to find them waiting for us," said Gunn.  
"What," said Willow with the slightest trace of humor in her voice, "you figured we'd show up and the two of them would be here eating honey- roasted peanuts and watching Cinemax?"  
"Three," said Buffy. She looked at them with a mixture of rage and frustration. Giles sensed this because he walked towards her slowly.  
"I hardly think they would be here for recreational purposes," he said.  
Buffy looked up. "One of them is." That killed any building conversation.  
Without speaking, the five of them searched the room for any sign of where these madmen could be headed or where they had gone.  
Before long Giles stopped. "Well I think I know why Earle and Cooper chose this motel."  
"It wasn't for the mint under the pillow," replied Gunn. He had just started to look under the bed and wasn't wild about going through this particular laundry.  
"No." Giles held up a matchbook. It was black with the words 'Veronica Lake Motor Lodge' written on it in white. "I guess this is what they consider subtle among psychopaths."  
"An insane reason is just as valid as anything else." said Angel.  
After a few more minutes of investigating, Gunn spoke: "Exactly what are we hoping to find here?"  
"Some information that might tell us who they intend to target" Buffy said.  
"We know who they intend to target. They're not going to leave us a bunch of names, pictures and phone numbers. "Gunn responded.  
"They're lunatics, Gunn," said Angel. "By definition they don't think like normal people. For all we know that's exactly what they have done."  
"Yeah but, unless the information we have is wrong, they're not stupid lunatics." said Gunn. "They're not going to leave any hints except the ones they want us to find.".  
Giles sighed. "You're probably right, Charles, but right now our only advantage is that they don't know we are on their trail. We have to press it as much as we can."  
"Small chance of that." Everyone turned to Buffy. She had been going through the closet and pulled out a brown manila envelope.  
"How come?" said Willow. She walked over from the bureau to the closet  
"Because of who this envelope is for."  
Angel took the envelope pretty sure of what he was going to see. For the yellow haired killer and the man who dominates, was written on it in blue ink.  
"I know who the yellow-haired killer is but what's dominating have to do?" said Gunn. "They're not talking about..."  
"I'm begging you not to finish that sentence." said Willow. It was clear that she had already gotten a mental snapshot and it upset her.  
"A 'domination' is one of the lower orders of angels," said Giles.  
"That sound you just heard was our slim advantage going 'poof,'" Willow quipped.  
For a moment there was an awkward silence. Then Angel began to open the envelope.  
"You're sure this is a good idea?" said Giles.  
"I think if they were going to kill us they'd use something more personal." Angel replied. "Besides, it's not like we have a lot of options."  
The only thing in the envelope was a mini-cassette recorder. On it was a piece of paper that said simply, 'PLAY ME.'  
The five looked at the tape player. None of them liked the idea of doing what these lunatics wanted but like Angel said, they didn't have a lot of choices. Buffy pressed the play.  
For several seconds there was silence. Then a quiet laughter began. None of them particularly liked the sound, but only Gunn would later be able to explain just what was wrong with it. When he'd witnessed Angel's reversion to Angelus, the first sign that something evil had been in the driver's seat was when he had begun to laugh. It had an overtone of evil that chilled the blood. This wasn't exactly like that, but it was close enough to make his skin crawl.  
About ten seconds in, it stopped. Then a voice -- Angel would have bet any amount of money that it was not the person who had been laughing -- began to speak: "Friends, Romans, vampires...lend me your ears." The voice was full of horrible happiness. Angel recognized it. He had used one like it frequently when he was torturing people.  
"As you no doubt know by now, my name is Windom. And the happy gentleman you just heard is Bob. But enough pleasantries, let's get down to brass tacks." The good humor left his voice. "From what I understand about your operation, you represent the interests of the white. That alone would seal your fate. But you have repeatedly and vehemently attempted to destroy the black lodge -- an action that, if accomplished, could have brought about the eradication of both sides."  
Angel and Buffy exchanged a glance that mirrored confusion and a certain kind of understanding. They still had no clear idea of what the black lodge was, but they both knew that this madman was talking about it for a reason.  
"Now I'm all for destruction and chaos and Bob here is a big fan of it. But , you are clearly on the wrong side of it, and so you must be destroyed."  
Buffy exhaled, relieved.  
Willow looked up at her in surprise.  
"I just realized. We're going to get the usual rant: Gonna to kill you, make you wish you were never born... your usual James Bond-Spiderman talking-villain stuff. Nothing to get stressed about."  
"I'll bet you're saying that you've been through this before."  
Buffy did a double take.  
"That you could eat people like me for lunch. Well, I'll tell you something. You might be able to stop me."  
"But you're gonna have a problem with me." A different voice was speaking now, and Angel knew that it was the man who had been laughing on the tape. "Hello, Anne."  
Buffy had looked surprised before. Now she looked alarmed.  
"Mind if I call you that? I know you that you haven't used it since the first time you came to L.A. Never really did tell Ripper about that little side trip, did you?"  
Now Giles looked alarmed.  
"That would have made a great essay: 'How I spent my summer vacation by Buffy Summers: I spent it in a coffee shop in L.A. after I sent my boyfriend to hell!' It's gotta be hard to forgive that, Angelfish. Maybe that's the real reason you got horizontal with Darla!" Cooper/Bob laughed. "By the way, she sends her love and says she's proud of her son."  
By now the group was exchanging looks of amazement. How did this...thing know their private fears? Angel might have been more upset if he hadn't played variations of this game as Angelus. However, he didn't like the expressions he was seeing.  
"But I'm getting off the track." The laughter disappeared from the rogue agents voice. "Believe me, I know better then to kill you, Anne. That's only seems to piss you off. No I have something a little more...damaging in mind. "  
"I'm going to make you wish that you were never born. I will remove every thing that you find precious. All that you prize I will eliminate. And when I'm finished, then I will come for you. Because then you will have been destroyed more completely than any mere death could." Cooper/bob laughed again. "You'll beg for it."  
"We'll be seeing you soon enough so I'll let you go. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds." Hearing this, Angel grabbed the recorder and threw it out the window, then they all hit the deck. Five seconds passed.  
Then ten.  
Then fifteen.  
They heard Bob's voice. "Psych!!!" and more laughter before the tape came to a stop.  
Everybody got to their feet, and they were pretty pissed. "Great," Gunn said, "So not only is this guy insane, he has a really warped sense of humor."  
"How the hell did they know all that?" Willow asked.  
"Maybe Bob is one of these lower beings that sees everything. Maybe they've got a spy in our offices. I don't know and I don't particularly care." Buffy seemed agitated . "We have to figure out a way to back on their trail. Before they start whatever twisted plot they've got going on."  
Angel was becoming alarmed at the level of agitation in Buffy's voice but knew better than to try and calm her down.  
"What do you suggest we do? Wait here and hope that they come back?" Giles asked.  
"No, they've obvious got a leg up on us. They're probably long gone."  
Angel would never understand how the events of the next twenty seconds really happened -- starting with his own actions. His hearing was good -- excellent, in fact -- but there was no way that he could have been able to hear something that was taking place across the street. Perhaps it was some kind of survival instinct that was magnified whenever Buffy was near.  
Whatever it was, he ran away from the window towards Buffy and the others shouting: "DOWN!!" He had a vague memory of Willow and Gunn both standing a few feet away from Buffy looking amazed, but moving as well. Right before the first bullets broke through the window.  
Angel wasn't sure how many shots were fired. He thought that it could have been as many as a dozen , but he wasn't sure how rational he was at the moment. All he remembered clearly was the sound of rifle-fire echoing through the room like explosions.  
And then it was over. No one was sure how long they remained flat on the ground. But Angel did remember Gunn getting to his feet and asking if everyone was all right. But he knew without looking that someone was not all right. He knew it even before he got to his feet, before Willow screamed, "GILES!"  
Then he turned and saw Giles standing. There was a little spot of blood just above his chest, like a red period. He saw Giles put his finger to it and take it away with a look in his eyes as if he couldn't believe what had just happened to him. His mouth formed a word, it might have been 'Buffy,' before he fell backward into the wall.  
"No! Giles!"  
Angel didn't have time to move before Buffy nearly knocked him down in her haste to get to her Watcher. He knew that having people crowd the man probably wasn't going to help, but he also knew that it would take an army to pull her away. Willow looked even worse. There was a blankness in her eyes that he had never seen before.  
Only Gunn still seemed able to act. "Call 911!" Then, as Angel seemed to be hesitating -- he didn't know what bringing the authorities would do -- he grabbed the cell phone from Angel's jacket pocket: "Give it to me, goddamnit!"  
As Gunn began to dial for help for Giles, Angel swore he could hear Earle or Bob, possibly both, laughing at them all.  
  
----------- 


	5. 4 Two important discussions

Chapter 4  
  
1:30 P.M  
  
For a very long time Wesley had thought that, while Justine had not killed him when she slit his throat, she might have killed some vital part of him nevertheless. The realization that he had betrayed one of the closest friends he had, that they had cut all ties with him seemed to have killed whatever ability he had to feel anything at all. The idea that he had let Lilah into his bed in order to feel something -- even if that thing was disgust -- had occurred to him more than once over the past months. His self-loathing had run so deep that nothing, even Angel's forgiveness, which he had demonstrated repeatedly, had managed to lift him out of the emotional void that he had been in.  
  
Even now that he had begun fighting with Angel again, forming this new Watchers' Council, and taking a role of leadership again, for the most part he felt like he was still emotionally empty.  
  
However, recently he had found out -- in mostly small ways and in a couple of big ones -- that he was capable of feeling something after all. He just wished that they could happen some other way.  
  
When his phone had rung an hour ago, he had been expecting the worst. And the second that he heard Giles had been hit he felt something deep within him ache. He had never been particularly close to Giles when he had come to Sunnydale, mainly because he had been a firm believer in the rightness of the Council, something which Giles had good reason to doubt. But after he himself had left the Council, he had begun to appreciate the difficulties Giles had had walking the line between good and evil. And in the past few weeks he had come to see that he was as steady and unshakable as a rock for everybody here.  
  
Earle (Wesley was sure that it was he who had pulled the trigger, guns seemed too impersonal for Bob) had chosen his target wisely even though he hadn't killed him. Despite the fact that she was strong and independent, Buffy still looked up to Giles. If anything happened to him she might become more dangerous. Furthermore, most of the higher echelon at Angel-Slayer Inc. cared very deeply about Giles, and almost all the Slayers who he had brought to fight The First had looked up to him as well -- maybe not as much as Buffy but still pretty high. More importantly they looked to Buffy. Wesley didn't want to think what condition she would be in, if she could lead at all. Someone would have to step up.  
  
Therefore, after he received the call, when all his extremities were telling him to go to the hospital to see if his fellow Watcher would survive, he had assembled the troops and spoken as calmly as his racing heart would let him.  
  
"I know that all of you are concerned about whether or not Giles will survive. I am as well. But the fact is we still have a job to do. Earle and Cooper are still out there and the trail is going colder as we speak. I don't want to use a cliché, but it's true: Giles wouldn't want us to quit while these killers are on the streets. So let's get back to work."  
  
Most of the Slayers agreed, as well as the staff. The sole exception was Xander who had taken off to the hospital seconds after he had heard that Giles had been shot. Gunn had told Wesley that he would try and pick up the trail, so Wes had told him that he would take some people and meet him there. (Since it was now the middle of the morning, Angel had decided to stay inside the hospital and be with Buffy) Faith had volunteered to come along and they had been about to go when the phone rang again.  
  
Robin picked it up: "Wait a minute." He listened for several seconds, then put his hand over the receiver and turned to the group. "It's Leonard."  
  
Wesley was surprised. Before the search for Earle and Cooper had begun, Buffy and Angel had sent Leonard home thinking that, after what had happened to him, he wasn't going to be much help. Wesley hadn't been wild about the idea but, considering his recent hysterics, figured they were better off without him, at least for a while.  
  
"What does he want?" asked Faith  
  
"To talk to us." Robin turned on the speakerphone. "Go ahead."  
  
"Giles has been shot," said Leonard without any preamble. That got Wesley's attention.  
  
"How did you know that? Did you have a vision?"  
  
"No. When I got home I took a pill and tried to get some sleep. I had one of my dreams."  
  
"If that's all you got, I gotta tell you...we already knew that." Faith sounded pretty bitter.  
  
"No. We're not the only ones trying to pick up Bob's trail."  
  
"We knew that, too," said Robin.  
  
"He doesn't mean the police and the FBI," said Wesley with a certainty he could not explain. "Who is it?  
  
"He has two names. The important one is that which he uses when he is looking for Bob. Then he calls himself 'Mike.'"  
  
"Are you saying that Mike is another spirit? Some good force to counter Bob?"  
  
"No. I'm not sure how this is possible, but I think that Mike used to work with Bob before he managed to free himself. "  
  
"I see." It said something about the kind of lives that they that Wes didn't find this explanation very strange. "How do we find him?"  
  
"I think I know where he is. Get a group together and meet me on 27th and Brookhaven."  
  
Wesley looked at the phone in surprise. The streets he had listed were only a block away from the motel. "Was this in your dream?"  
  
"No."  
  
Wesley couldn't tell but Leonard sounded a bit smug."Then where did you get that address?"  
  
"I just knew." Leonard hung up.  
  
Wesley wasn't entirely sure he liked that, in less than twelve hours after having an experience that nearly emotionally crippled him, Leonard now sounded almost normal about another experience. Nor was he particularly happy that they were going to be near a motel where, given the events of a few hours ago, a police presence was expected. But as Fred put it when she heard about it: "It's not like we have a whole lot of choices. Even with all the resources we have available, these are two guys who can do a good job of hiding. They showed us their hand once. It'll be a while before they try that trick again."  
  
So Wes had called Gunn, had given him the new meeting place and then went there with Faith. It took them only ten minutes to get there, but somehow Wesley wasn't surprised to find Gunn already waiting for them. Despite the fact that they had been here for three years Gunn still knew the city better than any of them.  
  
"How's Giles doing?" Faith asked ten seconds after seeing him.  
  
Gunn swallowed. "Giles was hit once in the chest. The bullet missed the heart and the lungs but nicked the pulmonary artery. When I left, they were taking him up to surgery. The doctors are hopeful but they say its still 50-50 that he'll make it."  
  
Wesley took all this in with little surprise but a lot of pain nevertheless. "How do you think he'll do?"  
  
"Giles is strong, but he's not a Slayer. If he's going to make, it's going to be up to him." Gunn looked at Wesley with the slightest discomfort. "I'm getting tired of seeing friends of mine get shot."  
  
Faith looked a little confused at the last comment. "This is a pre-Angel problem or did I miss another great thing?"  
  
Gunn stared at Wesley. "Did you tell the others about what happened to you two years ago?"  
  
Wesley tried to dodge the question. "A lot has happened in the past two years. You'll have to be more specific."  
  
"Don't be shy, Wesley. You know what I'm talking about."  
  
Wesley did know what Charles was talking about, but he didn't particularly want to be reminded of it. He had cheated death a lot since coming to Los Angeles, but the shooting had been one of the darkest times in his life – or, to be more accurate, his post-abduction life.  
  
Faith was now starting to get pissed. "Would someone care to tell me what the hell you're talking about?"  
  
Wesley put his hands in his pockets and turned towards her. "Two years ago Gunn and his friends had been pursuing some reports of hostile police officers in his old neighborhood. I ran across one while he had Gunn cornered. I asked him to reconsider his actions and he shot me in the stomach."  
  
Faith took this in. "For no reason?" Wesley nodded. "Damn, and I thought the fuzz in Sunnydale could be strange."  
  
"Of course it did turn out that this police officer and a group of his fellow cops were actually zombies." said Gunn. "I suppose it was part of the resourcefulness of the LAPD that even dead cops can serve a purpose."  
  
"How bad was it?" asked Faith.  
  
"I was in the hospital for several days. Then I was in a wheelchair for a few weeks." Wesley took a deep breath. "Not an experience I'd like to repeat."  
  
"I can relate to that." Everyone looked up. Leonard was standing a few feet away. He looked a little better than when they had seen him last, but he still appeared rather pale.  
  
"How's it going?" Wesley asked.  
  
"I think that I might be getting past—what happened." Leonard sounded cheerful but it seemed forced as he walked towards them.  
  
"Then why are you wearing a sweater when its eighty degrees?" Gunn asked, looking at him.  
  
All pretense of cheer disappeared from Leonard's voice. "Look, I have some more information that may help us find Bob. You want to have tea or can we get down to business?"  
  
Wesley figured there was no point in playing softball. The time for subtlety had passed. "What do you know?"  
  
"When Cooper had his first dream about Bob, he saw another man who gave him a lot of details about him. According to Cooper, this man was in his fifties, had brown hair and a beard... and one arm"  
  
"Great. Now we're channeling Richard Kimble." said Faith "Now was this a real person or a spirit."  
  
"'Mike' was the name of this being. Like Bob, it had been using a human host for an extended period of time. The man's name is Philip Michael Gerard. He's a shoe salesman." Noticing the expressions of the others, he added: "And no, the middle name is not a coincidence."  
  
"How did Mike and Bob know each other?" asked Wesley.  
  
"Apparently, at one point, Mike worked with Bob. Some kind of servant. He bore his mark -- I have no idea what kind -- on his left arm and this somehow bound him to Bob. It was only through some great epiphany that he was able to free himself from Bob's influence."  
  
"How did he do it?" asked Gunn.  
  
"He amputated the arm that had the mark." There was silence for several seconds.  
  
"How...how did he..." said Wesley.  
  
"It wasn't easy. Especially since he had to make it seem accidental"  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"Like Leland Palmer, Mike had been using Gerard as a host for years without his knowing it. The major difference was that Gerard at least suspected that there was something wrong with him. Gerard had been hospitalized with some form of schizophrenic episodes that were really Mike's attempts to surface. At the end of one of those episodes, Gerard was in an automobile accident and lost his arm. After that, they had to put Gerard on some pretty potent anti-psychotics before Mike went away"  
  
"And this all came to you in a dream?" Considering everything that he had heard, Wesley found this the hardest part of the story to believe. It wasn't like this was prophetic. It was far too linear for that.  
  
"It wasn't just a dream. I guess you'd call it a shared experience. When I was sleeping my defenses were down, and I think that somehow Mike appeared before me and explained his story." Leonard gave another smile that had no humor in it. "Call it a meeting of the unconscious minds."  
  
"So how does this story help us? Unless you can tell us how to find Mike or Gerard or whatever the hell this thing is?" asked Faith.  
  
"Mike has been drawn to Bob no matter what form he's taken. When the first killings took place in Twin Peaks, Gerard showed up there the day after the murders. Mike surfaced soon after. Cooper used him to find Bob in Leland Palmer. Since then he has not been consciously active."  
  
Something clicked in Wesley's head. "But unconsciously..."  
  
"The day Earle helped Cooper escape from the asylum, Gerard began a trip that would take him to California. Though he isn't aware of it, he has been traveling south on a route that is following Bob's path of destruction. He arrived in L.A. yesterday -- in that motel "He gestured to the building across the street.  
  
"And you think that Mike knows what Bob's next step is." Gunn said. Leonard nodded. "Then what are we waiting for?"  
  
"Hold it. "Wesley didn't want to rain on anyone's parade, but he had detected a flaw in Leonard's reasoning. "You said that Mike is still dormant within Gerard."  
  
Leonard seemed a little uncomfortable about this. "He's not active, no."  
  
"Then how exactly do we get him out and use him to help us?"  
  
"I don't know, but I do know that the closer he gets to Bob, the more active Mike becomes. Considering where he is, I should imagine that he's at the surface now."  
  
"And what makes you so sure that Mike will help us? Considering his relationship to Bob?"  
  
Leonard looked at Wesley as if he had grown an extra head. "He knows how evil Bob is, and he knows how powerful a force that he represents. All we have to do is bring him out. He'll do the rest."  
  
They all considered this. Faith finally spoke. "He's over there?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Then we don't lose much by trying. And this may be our only real chance. I say we go for it."  
  
Wesley knew that Faith and Charles were right. "All right. Let's go." As they walked, Wesley tried to understand what about this seemed false. Leonard hadn't led them astray before and this seemed to be the right path. But he still couldn't help but feel that they were crossing a boundary they might not be able to get back from.  
  
After he had heard that Giles had been shot, Xander had left so rapidly that he had not even asked Dawn if she wanted to come to the hospital. Which was probably a good thing even though she didn't want to admit it.  
  
Dawn still wasn't sure what to think of her life any further back than three years ago. In a purely logical sense she understood that all the memories before that were false, and designed by a power far greater than her. But they still seemed vivid. She could recall the long fights that her parents had before they divorced, or how she had spent her tenth birthday at a Sunnydale carousel with only Buffy and her mother, or the long fight Buffy and her mother had when she told her that she was the Slayer, even though she hadn't really been there for any of it.  
  
One memory that was very clear was how much of her life had been spent in hospitals -- not because something had happened to her but for someone she knew. And over that time (but especially since her mother's illness) she had realized how much she hated the places. She hated the smell, a mixture of antiseptic and medicine. She hated the bleached out look of the walls and floors. But most of all she hated the faces of the doctors and nurses. Not because they were unpleasant or discouraging, but because they always seemed to be trying to find a way to not tell you bad news. When her mother had been recovering from the removal of her tumor, the doctors had emphasized often that she was probably going to fully recover. They had mentioned that there was a chance of problems, but they had undervalued them, at least to Dawn.  
  
So when she had heard that Giles was in the hospital, despite her concern for him, she had opted to stay at the office and try and do some work. She knew that she was probably being a coward, but she just couldn't bear being at there now. More overwhelming than her worry for Giles was seeing Buffy's face -- using every muscle to try and seem brave while dying inside. Dawn had seen that on her face when their mother had been ill. She couldn't see it now. Not yet.  
  
Unfortunately, she was seeing Buffy's face anyway. Every time Dawn tried to concentrate on some of the traffic photos and motel receipts, in her mind's eye she saw Buffy waiting in the hallway of the hospital. In her mind Buffy was trying really hard not to cry because she had been through so much, but this...this was something she couldn't handle. Dawn didn't know if she could handle it either.  
  
She was about to give in and try to get a ride to the hospital anyway when she looked up and saw the last person that she had expected to see.  
  
"Andrew." The young nerd seemed almost as surprised to see her as she was to see him.  
  
"Hey Dawn. I didn't know that you were still here. I kinda figured you'd be at the hospital."  
  
"Yeah, well somebody has to do the important work around here." Dawn said, trying to sound brave.  
  
Andrew looked at her for a moment, as if he were seriously considering leaving, then he shrugged his shoulders. "Um I was going through some of the original police reports and I had this idea. So I was looking around for someone I could bounce it off of but most of the board is gone." The more he spoke, the more sure Dawn was that Andrew was trying to shrink into the wall.  
  
"Isn't Fred still around?" Dawn knew that Andrew had a built up a little simpatico with her over the past few weeks.  
  
"She and Lorne are busy trying to tap some demon resources to get a read on Bob. I didn't want to get in the way, especially with something I'm not sure of."  
  
"So I'm your last choice," Dawn said, feeling a little underappreciated.  
  
"Hey if it were the other way around, would I be your first choice?"  
  
Dawn thought it over. "Touché. All right, what's your theory?"  
  
Andrew hesitated. "All right, but I'm telling you up front, its pretty TV-MA."  
  
Dawn took this under advisement for a few seconds. "I can handle it."  
  
"Okay, we've been operating under the assumption that Earle and Cooper have been committing these murders together."  
  
Dawn was puzzled already. "What makes you think that they're not?"  
  
"I'd believe that if Earle and Cooper were the only ones here. Two minds thinking in unison might play. But Bob doesn't think like a normal man, even one as lunatic as Earle's."  
  
Dawn thought this over. "What are you getting at?"  
  
"What if Earle and Bob aren't working together? What if Bob is the only one committing the murders?"  
  
"You're saying Earle isn't a killer?" she asked incredulously.  
  
"Oh no, he's definitely homicidal. But the killings don't have any of his style. All of the murders that have been reported have the earmarks of something that Bob would do." Andrew grimaced a little. "Bob believes in overkill and torture. Earle just kills a person and is over with it."  
  
Dawn considered the possibility reluctantly. "Aside from the 'ewww' factor, how does Bob being the one committing the murders help us?"  
  
"Something else: according to the FBI files, Earle stalked his victims. Bob did the murders. What if Earle is doing the legwork and Bob did the murders alone?"  
  
"I suppose that's possible. But again, how does it help us?"  
  
"Maybe Earle and Bob are working separately of each other. We've been trying to locate two men together...."  
  
"...When we could be looking for them separately." Suddenly Dawn got it. "Interesting theory but we still don't know where to find either of them."  
  
"Maybe we do." Off Dawn's look, he went on: "Serial killers -- which, no matter how much supernatural stuff they have is what Bob and Earle are -- usually follow the same patterns. Not only in the murders but in their method of selecting victims. From what information we got in the files, Earle's pattern for selecting victims was to go to popular hangouts and look for women who fit his parameters."  
  
"Let me ask you something, Andrew. If you had just fired shots at a group of strangers in a motel, exposing yourself for the police and everybody else, wouldn't that cause you to break your model?'  
  
Andrew stopped for a minute. "First of all, Angel and the others have gone to an enormous amount of trouble to make sure that no one in L.A. besides the FBI knows that we think Windom Earle was the shooter." Upon seeing the look of surprise on her face, he added: "Hey what's the use of having access to one of the biggest media outlets in the country if you can't use it when you need it?"  
  
"So you're saying that the police don't know who...fired on Buffy?" Somehow Dawn couldn't use the right phrase to explain what had happened.  
  
"As far as the media is concerned, the identity of the shooter remains unknown.  
  
Besides the old law enforcement, we're the only people who know who it was." Andrew paused. "But I think that even if Earle and Cooper had had their names and faces plastered all over the news, they still would be trying the same plan."  
  
"What makes you sure about that?"  
  
"Because killers are like vampires and demons in a key way: once they have a plan that works, they will stick to it no matter whatever the risks. If they do it any other way, they won't feel right."  
  
Dawn listened to his theory. It sounded reasonable, but there was something about it that troubled her. "How do you know so much about this?"  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"You don't have any experience in tracking these kinds of people."  
  
Andrew looked at her before smiling. The smile creeped Dawn out but she couldn't tell why. "Because I killed a man, Dawn. I have a killer's mind. I was never a criminal mastermind like I planned, but I know how these...people think now. It's a part of me."  
  
Now Dawn knew why Andrew's smile creeped her out. She decided that it was time to move on. "So do you have any idea on how to track these guys?"  
  
"I think so. Based on who he targets, my guess is that Earle will be checking out places like... the Bronze or its L.A. equivalent. Someplace where teenage girls hang out."  
  
"That covers a lot of ground."  
  
"Maybe, but I'm betting that Earle will stick to some places in the part of the city near the motel." He handed her a map. "There are three or four within five miles of it."  
  
"You think he'll be that brave?" said Dawn questioningly.  
  
"I think he'll be that arrogant. He'll think he's sent a message to us, and that he's going on with his work. Do you think that Fred or whoever's in charge now would be willing to spare a couple of Slayers for this?"  
  
"Well you're going to need to work to convince her." Dawn paused. "Maybe if I tell him that I think your theory's valid, she'll send out some people."  
  
A look of gratitude that Dawn didn't think Andrew was capable of expressing appeared on his face. "Really? That... that would mean a lot. You sure about this?"  
  
"Pretty sure." said Dawn as she began to walk towards the door.  
  
Andrew hesitated. "Thanks."  
  
"I hope that this pans out." They left the room.  
  
The people at Angel-Slayer Inc. knew that the former owners of their building had one of the most complex security systems in the world -- one that rivaled many nuclear missile silos. They knew that someone was monitoring it, but they figured they were safe. So everyone had forgotten about the hidden closed-circuit cameras that were in practically every room in the building.  
  
But even if they had remembered, they wouldn't have known that, given the proper assistance, it could be hacked into by an outside source very easily.  
  
Even if they had known that, they wouldn't have suspected that the outside source could be as close as the building next door.  
  
And they wouldn't have known that the last person that should know about their operations had just heard Dawn and Andrew's private conversation.  
  
"Clever boy, that Andrew," said the man who had once been Special Agent Dale Cooper. "Good deduction. If I hadn't just heard that conversation, I'd have thought that it might work. But apparently our message to Miss Summers wasn't received." His grin would have caused a sane man to run in terror. "I guess I'll have to use smaller words -- or maybe smaller people." He looked at the monitor closely.  
  
"That girl ... she's the right type. It'll certainly send Miss Summers the right message." He smiled contently. "I think she will fit the bill." He turned to the other man in the room. "Don't you think so?"  
  
If the other occupant -- a security guard working the night shift -- had heard this he would have left in a hurry. But he never heard a word. Probably because his throat had been cut from ear to ear.  
  
"Yes, I think she'll make an appropriate message " Bob said.  
  
--------- 


	6. 5 Two important visits

Chapter 6 2:15 P.M.  
Locating Gerard was fairly easy. He was in the exact motel that Leonard had said he would be in. It hadn't been easy to convince the clerk that they needed to see him without telling the exact reason, but Wesley was still good at being persuasive.  
  
The problem came when Gerard opened the door and asked what they wanted. Gunn realized that, despite everything Leonard had told them, they had expected to see 'Mike' when they opened the door. No one knew exactly what etiquette was required to ask a person about an alternate personality without sounding crazy. They were also unsure how exactly to bring the man along of his own free will.  
  
"Um, I'm not exactly sure how to tell you this, Mr. Gerard," began Wesley awkwardly, "but we need to talk to you about Bob.  
  
There was a brief pause as Gerard took in the sight of two white men, one young black one and an intense looking woman. "Oh my, something's happened to Bob Lydecker again? Did he get into another bar fight?" Gerard sounded distraught.  
  
It seemed like a perfectly normal question to ask. But that pause at the beginning…there was something off about it.  
  
Wesley tried again: "It's not Mr. Lydecker who we are concerned about. "Actually, this has more to do with… Mike."  
  
Another pause. "You're not talking about Mike Blumenthal, are you? I knew that there was trouble between him and his wife, but I can't believe that he'd hurt her?"  
  
That pause. Gunn didn't think that Gerard was even aware of them. It was like some part of his mind was leading him away from the relevant questions.  
  
He looked at Wesley and could tell that he had noticed it too. "Mr. Gerard." Gunn asked "Do you know about anyone else named Bob?"  
  
Again there was another one of those pauses. "Where did you say you came from again?" Gerard had made the assumption that they were in law enforcement and Wesley figured they would keep up this façade as long as they could.  
  
"We're looking into some crimes involved and our records check came back saying that you know him." Gunn spoke in a tone that he hoped said 'detective' rather than 'have stake, will travel.'  
  
He didn't think that it was working because Gerard began to edge away from the door. "I really don't think that I know who you're talking about, and its very late…" "Mr. Gerard. " Both Gunn and Wesley turned in surprise. Leonard, who had faded into the background, had moved up to the front. "We're sorry about this, but we need to talk to Mike."  
  
Another one of those thinking pauses. "Well I don't understand why you would talk to me."  
  
"I think you do." And then without any warning, Leonard put his hand on Gerard's shoulder.  
  
No one was quite sure what happened next. When they asked Leonard about it later, he said that not only had he no idea what happened, he hadn't even been consciously aware that he was doing it. The only thing that they would all agree on was that, for a moment, there had been some kind of power surge that filled the air with electricity. But what it was, no one was sure.  
  
All they knew for sure was that a second after the surge, Gerard was breathing very hard.  
  
"Mr. Gerard? Are you OK?" said Wesley. He was about to move forward when Leonard stopped him.  
  
"He's all right." "Are you sure?" said Faith. "He sounds…"  
  
"I'm fine." Everybody whirled around, looking for the source of the new voice. Except Leonard. And a second later, Gunn realized that he had known where the voice had come from, he just wasn't sure he believed it. The voice did not sound like it came from the man who had said it.  
  
"I was hoping you would come." Gerard was speaking. Except he wasn't. Somehow he had left the room and Mike was in the driver's seat.  
  
"Bob has begun his work again," Mike said. "I had hoped the last time that he had been banished forever."  
  
"Where did you think he had gone?" asked Faith.  
  
"The black lodge," said Leonard. "He was sent there but he managed to fight his way free."  
  
"I knew. He has a new host now. The FBI agent." Wesley nodded as Mike continued. "But I don't know how this is possible. I was certain that Cooper was an agent of the light." Mike exhaled forcefully.  
"We're not entirely sure how this happened either," said Wesley. "All we know is that somehow Bob recently managed to gain control of him. He and the man who set him free have begun to carry out his work again."  
  
"Bob is working with someone else? Besides his host?" Mike seemed surprised.  
"He has never worked with an outsider for long… At least not without killing him.  
"As far as we know that individual is still very much alive," said Leonard. "And Coopers been doing a good job of helping him hide too."  
  
"Can you help us find him?" Wesley asked.  
Mike exhaled so loudly that he nearly fell down.. If this had been a normal man, Gunn would have been concerned if Gerard was going to collapse.  
  
"I need to be somewhere that he has been. " Gerard/Mike said. "I need to find his scent."  
  
Wesley was a little surprised at this. He knew that other creatures in the world of the undead were often known for using scent to find their quarry. Vampires had been doing something like that for a while, according to Angel. But he hadn't thought that two spirits -- or whatever the hell Mike and Bob really were -- would use something like this to track each other across the dimensions.  
  
Leonard turned to Wesley and asked him if he thought they could get Mike into the motel room. "Probably not. The police have cordoned it off. There's no way to get close enough without attracting attention." Wesley looked at Mike. "Does it have to be…"  
  
"I do not need to visit his lair. Only where he has completed his latest work." Now Wesley glanced at Gunn. "The room where the shots came from. The place that they found the rifle."  
  
"Well, we know that Earle was there but that doesn't mean that Bob was too."  
  
"It's probably our best bet," said Faith. " 'Sides, it's a lot less likely to get attention from the wrong people." She glared towards Gerard/Mike. "You'll follow us?"  
  
For a moment Mike remained still. At first they thought that he was just breathing. "You," he said pointing at Faith then at Wesley, "you were once both servants of the darkness."  
  
. Wesley and Faith both appeared troubled for a moment, before they recovered. "We were once. We're not anymore," Wesley answered.  
  
"Is this going to be a problem?" asked Faith.  
For a heartbeat, Gunn thought that it might be. Then Mike turned to Leonard: "Lead the way." If Leonard was surprised that he had been designated the leader, he gave no sign of it. He merely turned to Wesley. "Do you know where we're going ?" "Yeah."  
  
"Well then… What are we waiting for?"  
  
And so they left the motel room, Mike bracing himself on Leonard's forearm like a man leading his aged father to his car. Gunn tried to convince himself that this was a step in the right direction and that they would be able to find Bob.  
He couldn't escape the feeling that they were walking into a trap, however—one that they might not be able to get out of.  
  
For Buffy, time had begun to stand still.  
  
Though in her head she knew that this was a different hospital in a different town, she kept expecting one of the doctors from Sunnydale General to appear to tell her the same bad news. That they didn't know if Willow was going to regain consciousness. Or that the CAT scans had revealed that the anomaly was a tumor. . Or that Xander would never again see through his eye (even though she knew that this was wrong too, somehow). It was the same song, different city. Those good ol' "I'm The One Who Hunts The Monsters, But It's My Friends Who Keep Ending Up in the Hospital" blues.  
  
Xander and Willow were here. So was Angel, but Buffy knew from past experience that he wasn't good at comforting people about death. And as always they had a pretty good sense of her mood. They weren't buoying her with optimism about Giles, nor were they blaming her for what had happened. They knew that sometimes you just had to be quiet and let things happen. Buffy knew that there was nothing that they could say to improve her mood or make her feel less guilty. Yet she wished someone would try.  
  
It was all right for the others to tell her that this wasn't her fault and that Giles had come to the motel voluntarily. But all she could hear in her head was herself saying in that I'm-the Slayer-so-we're-doing-this voice that they were going after Bob. No argument that this was the police's job and not theirs, no saying that this kind of demon wasn't their problem. They were going after this madman and that was it. Thus spake Buffy.  
  
And now Giles was under the knife with a very good possibility that he might never wake up. All part of --  
  
"Miss Summers." She looked up. A doctor in a white coat had walked over.  
  
"Yes, Doctor?" She managed to speak without quavering.  
  
"You came in with…" He looked down at the clipboard he was holding. Giles"  
  
"Yes. Is he all right?" asked Willow.  
The doctor kept his face neutral. "He managed to get through the surgery all right, but its still going to be a tough battle. The next twenty-four hours will be critical."  
  
Xander and Willow both exhaled. The doctor, however, looked at her in a way that might have made Buffy uncomfortable under other circumstances.  
"Your name is Buffy?" he said.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Before we put him under, he kept asking if you were all right." Buffy felt a mixture of grief and hope go through her.  
  
"Can we see him?" asked Xander.  
"They should be wheeling him into the ICU now. They probably won't let you all in right away but they might be able to let you look."  
  
Willow and Xander were walking towards the ICU before the doctor could say the word 'able' Buffy held back for a moment, Angel waiting next to her.  
"He must care about you an awful lot."  
  
Buffy listened to the doctor. He seemed familiar for some reason, but she shrugged it off as a layover from her ruminations earlier. "Yes. Yes, he does." She got up. "Thank you, doctor." "You're welcome, I'm sure."  
  
She walked past the doctor without looking back -- an action she would regret later.  
  
She caught up with Xander and Willow just before they reached the ICU. A second before they walked through the doors, a nurse walked through them. Buffy recognized her as the woman who had taken Giles out of the ER and headed him to the elevator for surgery.  
"Miss Summers, I was just coming to get you. Giles is out of surgery."  
  
"We know that. Don't you people talk to each other?" said Xander.  
The nurse stopped. "What are you talking about? " "The doctor. The one we just talked with…"  
  
Buffy put her hand on Xander's shoulder. It had just come to her in a flash.  
"Giles. Did you leave him alone upstairs?" The nurse recovered from her confusion. "No, there are a couple of nurses with him."  
  
"Get a security guard to his bed. Someone you know." said Buffy.  
Angel turned around. Buffy could tell that he had just gotten it too. "Take us to his room." When the nurse seemed to hesitate, he grabbed her: "Right now." Buffy was scarcely noticed as she started to run back to the waiting room. All she could think about was how the doctor had appeared strangely familiar somehow even though she had never seen him before. How could she have been so blind, so foolish…  
  
She got back to the waiting room. There was no sign that the doctor had been there. Of course there wasn't. Why should he even be in the hospital any more? He'd done what he wanted to.  
  
There was a woman who had been waiting as well. For a moment she considered asking her if she had seen a doctor with gray hair and blue eyes, but then rejected it. Not sure that she would find any trace of the man, she turned and headed towards the exit. Then she saw it.  
  
There, draped over a wheelchair, was a white lab coat. It was undistinguished and no different from any other. There was no reason to believe it had been his. Yet Buffy knew that it was. She knew it even before she picked up the coat and checked the pockets. In the left front pocket was a piece of paper.  
  
NEXT TIME I'LL FINISH WHAT I STARTED.  
W.  
  
It took all of her willpower to keep herself from ripping the note to shreds and thus taking any clues that there might be with them. The anger and fury within her reached such a level that, for a moment, she realized that she had forgotten about Giles She started walking back towards the ICU.  
  
"I will get you, you son of a bitch." she said as she walked back to the others. All thoughts of guilt had left her mind.. In their place was a dull rage that seemed to come from everywhere. Some of the others -- Willow and Faith, for example -- could have told her that it was as dangerous as the guilt. But it wouldn't have mattered. She was locked on course.  
  
And God help the man—or demon—that got in her way.  
  
3:55 P.M.  
For most of Andrew's life, people had made a special habit of ignoring him. His parents, though they tried to be fair, had a habit of preferring his brother Tucker to him. In school, his peers pretty much didn't notice him -- which may have led him down the path of trying to be a 'supervillain'. The Scoobies had then ignored him as a villain and had tried to do the same thing when he was a prisoner. And it had been nearly a month before they had allowed him into a board meeting.  
  
Which is why he was floored when Fred had not only listened to his idea about tracking Earle, but suggested that he lead the effort. She even told him that she would put some of her team on the endeavor. For an instant, he had considered kissing Fred but immediately remembered some of the gossip surrounding her and decided not to complicate things further for either of them.  
  
Now that he was here in one of the board rooms, he was beginning to wish that he hadn't been so exuberant. For one thing there was the fact that he had to talk to a group of more or less complete strangers. For another, before he could even open his mouth, Fred's cell phone rang. She had left the room but returned to it a moment later to say that there might be a snag in their operation.  
  
"What happened?" he asked as Fred reentered the room. "Do you have a location of either Earle or Cooper?"  
  
"Not quite. " She looked grim. "You're right about Earle being arrogant. Half an hour ago, he put on a doctor's uniform and some makeup and pretending that he was one of the doctors treating Giles."  
  
Andrew shivered. "Is Giles all right?"  
  
"Well, he's in recovery. According to the real doctors, he didn't do anything to hurt him. I think he just did what he did to mess with our heads."  
  
Andrew took a deep breath. "The man is worse than I thought. To taunt someone hours after you tried to kill them, and a Slayer at that. There are demons who don't have that kind of nerve.." He swallowed. "Maybe we should forget my idea, concentrate on some house to house searches in the neighborhood."  
  
"They're going to try that now, but there may still be some merit to your plan after all." "I'm not sure that I follow."  
  
Fred turned to one of the strangers. "Nick, could you put the map that I gave you up there?" The man in question did some fiddling with a computer. A few moments later a map of downtown L.A. appeared on a big screen behind them. Andrew guessed he might have a look of surprise on his face because Fred responded with: "Beats crouching over a map, doesn't it?"  
  
"I'll say." "All right. The motel is here." She drew an X with a laser pen on the approximate location and it appeared on the screen behind them.. "The building where Earle fired the shots from is here." She drew another X about an inch away. "The hospital where they took Giles is here." "So where's the buried treasure?" Fred looked up and finally drew a circle about an inch and a half away. "We don't know it for a certainty, but we think here."  
  
Andrew looked at the map. "Ground Zero. A coffeehouse and teenage hangout." Fred nodded. "Aside from the fact that it's in the area where Earle and Cooper are staying, what makes you think that this is where we'll find him?"  
  
Fred handed him a photograph. "This picture was taken from a traffic camera across the street yesterday evening. Look in the right-hand corner. "  
  
For a moment Andrew didn't see anything. Then he didi: "How sure are we that's Windom Earle?"  
  
"According to the computer there's an 85% match to Earle." Fred paused. "How do you want to handle it?"  
  
For a split second Andrew reveled in his position of authority, then kicked himself for getting upbeat about chasing a psychotic madman. He looked at the people in the room. The only ones that he recognized, aside from Dawn and Fred, were Kennedy and Ida, a black Slayer. There were a couple of other Slayers around but since they had only recently come to L.A, he didn't know them by name. "I have a plan as to how we can track Earle. It's a little complicated, but I think if we work together we can pull it off." He looked at Kennedy. "You have proven yourself on the field of battle on numerous occasions so I think that you should be the key figure."  
  
Fred and the people with Wolfram and Hart looked at him as if he had just spoken Klingon. Kennedy and Dawn took his talk as a matter of course."What do you want me to do?" she asked.  
"Well, its actually a little beneath your talents… but it does have a fairly high danger level to make up for that." Kennedy was a smart girl. "You want me to act as bait for Earle."  
  
"I wouldn't be as derivative as that, but that is the idea," said Andrew.  
  
"That's your plan?" Fred sounded a little incredulous. "Setting up a girl as a lure for these guys? I thought there'd be more to it."  
  
"First of all, we're not sending in a girl. We're sending a Slayer. Big difference. Second, she isn't going in alone." He glanced toward Kennedy. "No reason for you to have all the fun." He turned to Fred again. "According to Dawn, this firm has access to stuff like miniature cameras and microphones?"  
  
"Yeah. We have a lot of stuff for corporate espionage."  
  
"Good. Here's the setup. Kennedy, you will go in 'miked-up', as they say in the Bond movies." He tried to keep a serious face even as he did air quotes on 'miked up.'. We will put as inconspicuous and as a powerful microphone as we can find -- if the two terms aren't mutually exclusive."  
  
"I think we can find something to fit the bill," said Fred.  
  
"At the same time Ida and I will be in Ground Zero, hopefully looking as invisible as extras on a movie set." He turned to Fred again. "You will set us up with cameras so that we will be able to see as much of the coffee house as possible. If Earle or anyone who looks suspicious comes in, we'll be ready."  
  
Some of the others were nodding. Good. Now to see if the rest was plausible.  
"I'm assuming that along with all the technological gizmos that this place has, we also have a … mobile unit so that we can use them outside of these offices."  
  
One of the men at the table -- not Nick -- answered this question. "It is within our capabilities to have a unit with the abilities that you require." "How long will it take to get everything ready -- wires, cameras everything?"  
  
"Approximately ninety minutes." Andrew looked at his watch. Then in his best Patrick Stewart imitation, he said: "You have one hour."  
  
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. Then Nick spoke up: "Mr. Grusynzki, this is a fairly large operation. If you want this done successfully, you'll have to …."  
  
Regretting that he didn't have time to appreciate being called 'Mister', he spoke: "Look, I know that this is a lot at once. But the fact of the matter is that we are on the clock. Earle has probably chosen his next victim by now. Which means that he will probably take the next opportunity he has to grab her. The second he does that, Bob is going to begin the process of assaulting, torturing and killing her. Our only chance is to be able to beat him to the punch. An hour is probably too long, but we need to do this fast and do it well."  
  
Fred walked up behind him. "He's right. Do what needs to be done. At five p.m., we're getting out of Dodge."  
  
Nick looked at Fred and then Andrew. Finally, he spoke: "All right. I'm going to need for you and Ida to come with me so we can get you set up. Kennedy, go with Ross, he'll get you wired for sound."  
  
"Wait a minute." Dawn, who had been surprisingly quiet, spoke up. "I notice that you seem to have avoiding giving me anything."  
  
"On the contrary, I have a very critical job for you," said Andrew.  
Dawn smiled at this. For just a moment Andrew thought about how pretty a girl she would be someday She did look beautiful when she smiled.. "Really?"  
  
"Yes. You will be in the mobile unit with Fred, monitoring all the audio and video."  
  
"Oh." She seemed disappointed.  
  
"Don't act that way. This is as important a job as mine or Ida's. Each of us is only going to have a limited visual and audio range. You are going to be in charge of overseeing everyone and making sure that everything is safe. If there is a problem, you've got to tell us to scrap the mission." "Really?" For a moment Dawn cheered. Then she sobered up. "And this position of power has nothing to do with the fact that I'm Buffy's little sister?  
  
Andrew had hoped Dawn wouldn't think that far ahead. "I'll admit I'm trying to keep you out of harms way because your sister would probably rip me in half if something happened to you. But this is still a vital and important job. And I think that you are up to it." He started walking away.  
  
"All right. Where do I go?" Dawn asked.  
  
Fred walked to her. "The van that we're going to be using is downstairs in a special section of the garage. I'll show you where it is. Andrew, go get wired up. We'll be ready for you in thirty minutes."  
  
"Make it so." Andrew said before he walked over to join Ross. He couldn't remember feeling more like he was part of the team ever in his brief life. He felt that he was going to make a difference.  
  
A few hours later, he would be racked with guilt and agony for the same reasons. 


	7. 6 Darkness Before Dawn

Chapter 6

5:45 pm

Wesley usually had a remarkable amount of patience for the supernatural. He knew that it generally worked at a different pace than the 'normal' world and that you had to allow for that. Even if you were working on a deadline, as was often the case, you could only do so much to speed of the process.

However, in the case Philip Michael Gerard, a.k.a. Mike, he was beginning to wonder if it had been to their advantage to find this...whatever he was, at all. While it could be argued that 'Mike' was aiding them immensely, it could also be argued that he wasn't doing anything that they couldn't figure out by themselves.

When they had led Mike to the room where Windom Earle had attempted to kill Buffy and the others, he had no reaction -- until he reached the window.

"Bob was here." Mike had said. breathing hard.. "He told the other one to come to this room and fire."

Gunn recovered first. "Did he tell Earle who to shoot?'

A long pause. "No. He just told him not to hit the girl." Wesley didn't need an interpreter to know who 'the girl' was. "He has big plans for her."

Wesley had never actually heard the message that Earle and Bob had left for Buffy, but this gave him chills even though it was what he had expected. "Do you know where he has gone?"

For several moments Mike did not respond. Then he began to walk towards the exit of the room. The others followed him slowly, not sure if he knew what he was doing or was in a fugue. No one quite had the nerve to ask.

"He has gone to a place nearby."

Wesley resisted the seemingly primal urge to say: 'Duh." and merely asked: "Where?"

"The sickness there is deep -- but not nearly as deep as it is in him. No bromide will cleanse his soul." It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was referring to Saint Elegius -- the hospital where Giles had been taken to after being shot -- something that made even more sense when they received a phone call from Willow telling them that Earle had paid them a visit.

When they got to Saint Elegiius, there was little reaction from Mike even after they had led him into the lobby of the hospital and into the ICU. Occasionally Mike would say something along the lines of "The trail is cooling" or "Darkness has passed close." Wesley was beginning to think that this spirit was little more than a police psychic found at the scenes of some crimes -- people seeming to have all the answers but really just whistling in the wind.

Wesley was far more concerned about Buffy's reaction to Earle's visit. He knew that both Earle and Bob had gotten under her skin somehow. She said that she could deal, but Wes knew that she was wound pretty tight. Now he was not only concerned about what Bob would do, but how Buffy would react. He wasn't a great deal happier when Buffy decided to leave Giles at the ICU and follow Mike around. The sun had begun to set and Angel, who had been in the hospital most of today, decided to go with them. Willow and Xander both said that they understood but Wesley could see that they were also concerned about whether Buffy should be on the prowl and aiding Mike.

If they could be said to be helping him.

Finally, after nearly half an hour of nosing around the floor Giles was on, Mike turned towards them and said in as a subdued a manner as he could manage. "Too much evil. They are both such vile entities. The odors are too close."

l

Wesley felt like giving Mike a very hard slap in the face. "What you're saying is that you've lost the scent," he managed without raising his voice.

Perhaps seeing the eventual fight, Angel stepped in. "Are you saying that Bob was never here?"

Mike looked at Angel as if to say: 'Foolish vampire.' "He was here. But he only stopped here long enough to leave off a small part of himself."

"Ah. So Bob left Earle here," said Buffy. "Do you have any idea where Bob went after that?"  
Mike paused. "Outside. He was in the parking lot." Wesley was about to make a sarcastic remark at finally being deigned worthy enough to get a direct statement when Leonard put his hand on his shoulder.

"I know that it feels like we're being jerked around but I honestly believe that he will lead us to Bob. He just has to do it this way."

Wesley restrained himself and kept quiet as they followed Mike to the parking lot. It was there that things truly got strange. Mike had seemed all right until he reached a certain area. Then he had grabbed his head and fell to his knees. Buffy and Angel had rushed over to him.

"Mike? What's the matter?" Angel asked. For several long moments it seemed like Mike would not be able to answer. His eyes had rolled to the back of his head and his breathing went from rapid to hyperventilation. Wesley again considered the possibility that he was having a stroke and for the first time wondered if Gerard could take the demands on his body.

"Do you need a doctor?" asked Willow. For a long moment there was no answer and Wesley was just preparing to get someone to help when Mike finally said: "No. The host has been a strong one but too much activity weakens even the hardiest."

"Maybe you should go back?" said Leonard.

"That is not an option. Bob must be found and defeated." There was such firmness in the voice that not even Wesley dared dispute it.

"Do you know where he is?" asked Angel.

Mike breathed deeply, finally gathering the strength to speak. "Bob has gone to a place of evil. A place where darkness once filled every nook and cranny for ages, before light finally began to break through."

Suddenly the feeling that Gerard was jerking them around disappeared. In its place came a feeling that maybe they had been blind after all and that they were only now beginning to see clearly. Wesley looked at the others. Angel seemed to get it too, but the others seemed a little unsure.

'"Where is he talking--" said Faith.

"Bob has gone to Angel Slayer Inc." said Buffy, cutting her off.

"Are you sure?" asked Angel. But Mike seemed incapable of further speech. All he could do was nod.

The first thing to do was call the building. Lorne answered his page. Even though he had never been much of the action type, he told them he would seal off the building immediately and have security do a sweep. No one was entirely sure how Earle or Bob could manage to get into a building as secure as the former law firm was, but no one was sure that they could put it past either of them.

The next thing to do was get back. Since the six of them could not all fit in one car, Wesley and Faith decided that they would take Mike in their car while Angel, Buffy and Leonard would go back in Giles's. Under other circumstances Wesley might have been concerned about the arrangement of the passengers but with time of the essence he just let things ride.

During rush hour traffic in downtown L.A. it would normally take half an hour to get from the St Eligius Hospital to Angel-Slayer Inc. Both cars made it back in fifteen.

Mike remained quiet throughout the car ride. This surprised Wesley who was concerned whether or not he would be in any condition to help when they got there.

He wondered whether or not Mike was even still present.

When they finally reached the Wolfram and Hart building, Mike remained silent -- up until they had almost made it to the entrance. He stopped short and began breathing hard.

"What's the matter?" Wesley asked. "Has he gone?"

"He's near. He's very close."

For a moment Wesley was frustrated. "We know that. He's in the building."

Mike shook his head. "No. Not that close."

By now, Buffy, Angel and Leonard had reached them. "What the hell is he doing now?" Buffy asked.

"He's not going back and saying that we've missed him again, is he?" asked Angel, frustration written on his face.

Leonard, however, seemed calm. "Where is he Mike? Do you have his scent?"

Mike nodded. "There is a lot of darkness here, but his stench -- his decay stands out like a lighthouse in the fog." He struggled his way past the front door.

"Yes, but is he in the office?" snapped Buffy.

Again Mike shook his head while moving forward. "He has gall and anger for many, but not even he would be foolish to put himself directly in the lion's den."

"Then where is he?" asked Faith.

By now Mike had ambled so that he was standing at the property line of the old Wolfram and Hart main office building-- over to a somewhat smaller building. Technically, this building was Wolfram and Hart's property as well, but it had never been a part of the law firm. It was operated by a skeleton crew and nothing of real importance was in it. Wesley didn't think that he had been in it more than once.

It seemed to hit all of them at once. But it was Angel who put into words what they all were thinking: "Bob is in this building.?"

Mike didn't answer. Instead he reached out a trembling hand and pointed towards the building.

Buffy grabbed Mike and walked over to his other side. She didn't quite yank on his arm and start pulling him, though Wesley could sense that she had seriously considered it. Walking beside him, she began guiding him towards the building.

Angel moved to her other side. "Buffy, are you sure that we should go in by ourselves?'

She stopped. "Are you saying that you think the five of us can't handle two people?"

"Well, what if Earle has an AK-47 and he's preparing to take target practice

again?"

That got through Buffy's armor in a way that no one else had managed to.

She turned to Wesley and Faith. "All right. Wes, call one of the security officers. Tell them that we need a team to scope out the building. Maybe we can narrow down what floor he's on."

"Hold it." said Faith. "If we do a room to room search doesn't that give away the game? He'd probably try and run."

Buffy sighed. "Okay. Talk to Fred and the guys in the science department. Tell them that I want them to use the computers to do a...heat concentration test—

"Body Thermal Units." supplied Wesley.

"Whatever. Tell them to look for any concentrations that could be people. Then very quietly get some guards to do a search according to what that tells us."

Wesley pulled out his cellular.

"And when they begin the search Angel, Faith and I are going to be looking too. " When it seemed that one of them might object, she added: "No debate."

Wesley made the call hoping that this plan would help flush out the killers without much incident.

His hopes were not born out.

The heat scan revealed that there were sixteen people in the building and that was basically all that it could tell them. Angel put a slayer and a security guard on both the front and back entrance into the building, then he gathered half a dozen slayers and told them to sweep the entire building floor by floor. He didn't even try to talk Buffy out of taking part in the search, but he did insist that he was coming along with her.

Buffy agreed -- and spent the next twenty minutes moving at a pace that no man and very few demons could have kept up with.

The third time that he caught up with her, he pulled her over to the side. "Buffy."

"We're not going to get into this now.' she said, brushing him aside.

He blocked her path with his arm.

"You know that's not going to stop me." she said pushing his hand aside.

"You're going to have to deal with this, Buffy."

"I'm handling it fine," she spat.

"You trying to convince me or yourself?"

"We don't have time for this. In case you've forgotten, we're tracking a killer."

"Who shot Giles. Who tried to kill you. Who's been screwing with your head since you started looking for him."

Buffy's face hadn't given anything away yet. "You know how many...things have tried to mess with my head."

To an outsider it would seem like Buffy sounded fearless and defiant. Angel knew better. "This isn't a thing. This is a man. A man who gets his rocks off by raping and torturing girls your age."

"You call that a man? He's no better than a demon. No, he's worse because a demon doesn't have a soul. "

"That's not the whole story and you know it."

"Bob may have no remorse, but Cooper did. He should have tried to stop them but he let it take over. He gave in to the darkness. That makes him no more than a monster."

Angel put both his hands on her shoulders "All right. He's a monster. What are you going to do when we find him? Put a stake through his hear? Cut off his head?"

That seemed to penetrate her reserve and Angel jumped on it. "He is human. Barely, but a human being. You really think you can kill him?"

That threw her still more. "I never said that I was going to do that." She spoke without meeting his glance.

"Then why can't you look me in the eye?" When Buffy didn't answer, he went on. "It's because you don't want anyone to see that you have the look of someone who intends to end another person's life."

"I do not look that way."

"I know that look, Buffy. I've worn it often enough. You don't want to go down this road. You almost never come back from it."

For a moment he thought he might have reached her. Then she looked up. The killer's look was still in her eyes, but now it was mixed with resignation.

"I've already gone down this road, Angel. I may not have killed a man with my own hands but I've done nearly everything else. I've let my friends die. I've ordered strangers to their death. I've let myself die. Death is my gift, Angel. It's all around me. It is a part of me, whether I or you or anyone likes it."

Angel knew there was a flaw in her reasoning, but he wasn't sure how to express it. "Buffy--"

"You don't want me to kill a man. News flash, I already have. A vampire may already be dead, but he used to be a man."

"That's different."

"Why? Because they don't have a heartbeat? Or reason? Or a soul?" For that last one, she looked right at Angel. "They exist before I fight them, they don't afterwards. That's killing no matter how you slice it. So don't worry about be losing my murder-cherry. It's been gone for a long time."

With that she walked away from him to the next door on the floor.

For the second time in twelve hours, Angel felt a flash of awareness go through him. When he finally had time to analyze what had happened during the whole ugly mess, he would wonder what, or who, was behind these precognitive flashes. Maybe it was some kind of bond that had been formed between them. Maybe it was some other force working to balance out the evil that Bob represented. Or maybe he had just heard the sound of a man loading up a rifle.

Whatever it was, he nearly didn't react in time. Like the last time, the next few seconds seemed to stretch out. He saw Buffy reach for the door. He heard himself yell, "Buffy!" as he raced to the door. He saw the door open a split second before he knocked her to the side. And then he turned and saw a man he had only seen in pictures stare at him, madness in his eyes. And he thought -- he thought that he saw the bullet leaving the rifle, even though he knew that it would take less than a fraction of a second. Even if that wasn't true, he certainly felt the bullet pierce his chest and knock him back.

Then time resumed its normal speed. The next moment Angel was thrown against the wall. Earle was a hell of a shot. If Angel had been human, he would have been dead before he hit the wall. As it was, it was going to be a few minutes before he could stand on his own power. "Buffy' he tried to say, but it came out a gasp. It was obvious that she hadn't heard him. It was also clear that she wasn't going to call for help.

"You sonofabitch!" Buffy charged into the room with a speed that would have done Jesse Owens proud.

Either Earle was stunned that he'd missed or for some reason he didn't want to fire. Whichever it was he didn't get off a second shot. Buffy reached him and kicked him squarely in the balls. She stood over him as he fell.

"Like torturing girls, do you? Well, let's see how you like it when one of them hits back!" She lifted his face up and started to punch him viciously. "Let's see how tough you are without your big gun."

Angel made a monumental effort and managed to get to his feet. "Buffy."

The blonde gave no sign that she had heard and continue to beat the shit out of Windom Earle. Angel had never seen her attack a man --or most vampires for that matter -- with such ferocity.

"Buffy, stop. The police...":

"The cop's will think that this bastard got what he deserved," she said as she kicked him in the ribs.

"Buffy. You can't do this." The source of the voice managed to penetrate Buffy's consciousness. Angel was surprised. He hadn't heard Faith's approach.

"You're kidding." Buffy said—but she stopped attacking him. "You're lecturing me on violence. Where are the irony police when you need them?"

"I'm not going to tell you that he doesn't deserve it, B. Five years ago, same situation, I would have gone medieval on him." The dark-haired Slayer approached the fair-haired one. "But then I always did have a problem with impulse control."

"I suppose this is the part where you lecture me about the code of the Slayer and how we should protect people not kill them." Buffy spoke sarcastically, but she moved away from Earle.

"You really want to go down this road, Buff? Because I can tell you where it ends. The darkness swallows you whole. If you're lucky maybe you come out the other side. Or maybe you don't. Either way, you'll be alone."

"Faith's right." Angel had recovered enough of his strength to start. "You go down this road, you'll lose everything: your friends, your sense of right and wrong, your hope. It almost happened to me. You really want to lose every good thing to that atrocity?"

For a moment, it seemed like Buffy really was considering doing just that. Then, after seconds that seemed like an eternity she began walking towards the door. When she passed Faith, she turned around and said: "Get this piece of filth out of my sight."

Faith walked over to Earle. "I hope you're not claustrophobic, Earle, cause I'm betting that you're not going to be in a room this large for a long time." She lifted him to his feet. "Now do yourself a favor and tell us where Bob is."

Earle looked at Faith for a moment and began chuckling. Faith rolled her eyes ."Great. Does every villain we face have to get hysterical when we've beat him up?"

"Silly girl." Angel had been looking at Buffy, but the second he heard those words he whipped his head back to Earle. There was something in his tone that troubled him.

Buffy heard it too. "What's so damn funny?"

"Tough girls. Fearless vampire hunters. Defenders of the good and pure." Earle chuckled again. "You won't be so high and mighty when he comes for you."

"You just don't seem to get it. You're finished and when we find your body-hopping friend, we'll kick his ass too," said Faith.

Earle continued to chuckle. "No, you don't get it. You may find Bob, but even if you do he's already beaten you. He will have destroyed the thing that you value the most. And when he's done that, you'll wish I'd finished you off."

A cold feeling went through Angel. A nasty idea had just occurred to him. "What are you talking about?"

Earle was now convulsing with laughter. "Sorry old sport, my lips are sealed. And now if you'll excuse me, I have a flight to catch. "

Moving with a speed that would have done Buffy proud, Earle hit Faith with a vicious head butt and started to run. Angel stood in his path but he was still stunned from the bullet in his chest and Earle ran past him, knocking him down.. Buffy might have been able to stop him but she was frozen as the horrible idea occurred to her too.

"Stop him!" shouted Angel. Faith started running after Earle. She was fast enough to catch him, but Earle was crazy and he ran with the speed of madness. And as he ran he continued to laugh.

Right until he reached the plate glass window at the end of the hall -- and went right through it.

Angel was sure that he was still laughing even as the ground rushed up to meet him. Right now that didn't concern him as much as what he thought Earle had implied.

"Buffy." The Slayer didn't react and Angel knew why. A look of abject fear had appeared on her face. Not for herself, no. Fear that something far more precious to her had been violated.

For a moment she didn't answer him. She seemed to be fixed staring into the room that Earle had just vacated. Inside the room were three television monitors. Though he couldn't be sure of it, he was willing to bet that they were all video feeds into Angel-Slayer Inc. He recognized some of the people walking by on the monitors.

He still wasn't sure he understood what was going on. Then he saw that one of the TVs had a VCR under it. Hanging out of it was tape (Angel would have been willing to bet that it was left out on purpose) and on the label was a single word

'Sunrise'

"Find her." Was all that Buffy seemed able to say.

"Buffy, we don't know..."

"FIND HER! Get on the phone and find her!"

Angel began dialing Dawn's cell phone, and as he did he said a prayer to the powers he was no longer sure he believed in that he wasn't too late

7:40 pm.

Dawn had expected that she would feel a lot of things as she waited in the van one block away from Ground Zero. Nervous , excited, angry, sad-- the whole gamut of emotions. She had not, however, expected to feel this way.

Bored stiff.

. To be fair Fred had warned her that this was likely to happen when they had begun to set up shop. "This is probably going to feel like standing lookout near a vampire nest before sunset. We're going to spend a lot of time waiting for some kind of action, but it's probably going to be a while"

And that was indeed what happened. They had spent the last two hours examining every inch of the coffee house that Andrew and Ida were covering with their miniature cameras. Every time the door opened they did matches to see if any of the adults who entered the place were either of the men they were looking for.. Right now, they were 0 for a million or so it seemed.

Dawn was at least partially consoled by the fact that Andrew and Ida were as bored as she and Fred were. Andrew was covering it with the nervous energy he brought to almost everything, and Ida was on full alert with all her Slayer powers on neutral, but Dawn could tell by their voices that they were starting to lose interest. They actually had it worse because in order to keep the proprietor from throwing them out they each ordered another latte every half an hour or so. The idea of Andrew on a caffeine high was pretty scary, but so far he was doing a pretty good job of keeping it together. At first, Andrew had interrupted the dullness by checking in every five minutes, but either he realized how conspicuous that was, or he realized that it was getting on Dawn's and Fred's nerves. Whichever it was, he had shut up about an hour ago.

Since then Fred and Dawn had spent their time talking about more or less unimportant matters. Dawn wasn't exactly sure what the protocol was in a stakeout, but considering that Fred was a babbler by nature and Dawn was a sixteen year old girl going on seventeen, it was probably inevitable that they would be having a drawn out conversation. It wasn't very intense (mainly because they were spending part of their concentration on the monitors) but it had a kind of adult quality that Dawn was grateful for.

At first they had talked a little about Andrew's story which was rapidly becoming bigger and bigger in scope. By now he had gone back as far as Buffy's freshman year in college and he was probably going to have to go back still further before he was done researching. Fred was curious about whatever Dawn had been a part of (apparently Andrew hadn't told her about Dawn's origins) and the view from the Summers' home. Conversation had then drifted to how their parents had gotten used to the idea of what they were each doing, respectively.

"You're telling me that your parents not only know about what you're doing here in L.A., but they're actually supporting you?" Dawn was finding this harder to believe then the concept of Spike being a poet when he was human.

"I'm pretty sure that they would have been happier if I'd taken that physics scholarship at Texas A and M, but they seem to understand that this is what I'm good at." Fred paused. "They called me and asked me to consider leaving when they heard about the rain of fire and the sun turning black, but they understood when I told them I had to stay."

"Well, I wish my mom had shown more cool about it." Dawn paused as she remembered, even though that wasn't real either. "I mean I admit that it came as shock to both of us, but Mom really should have been more lenient at first. But I guess when she had enough time to process it she did okay." Another pause. "I just wonder how she would have dealt with our house being the headquarters for the forces of good."

Dawn half expected Fred to offer some kind of soothing statement like "She would have dealt with it fine" But Fred didn't say that. Instead she thought for a moment and then said: "My guess is she would have done everything in her power to get you and your sister out of there. And when she realized that she couldn't make Buffy leave, she would have tried to keep you safe."

Dawn thought about it. "Yeah. I guess she would."

A not entirely uncomfortable silence fell. Then Fred spoke again: "When Cordelia was helping raise Connor when he was still a baby, she said that she didn't want to be like her own mother. I mean Mrs. Chase loved her, but she did a lot to separate herself from raising Cordy. Left it to nannies and such."

"That sounds like her."

"Once she said that the only really good maternal figure in Sunnydale was your mom." Off Dawn's look of surprise, Fred added: "Cordelia said that none of the other parental units the guts to face what was really going on in town. They just took it and hoped that it would go away. Joyce knew Buffy was the only thing keeping the world from ending, that it would probably kill her yet she let Buffy do what she needed to do. That was brave and compassionate."

Dawn took all this in. "Cordelia _Chase_ said that?"

"Well, she also said it wasn't like Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Rosenberg were Mother of the Year candidates. I believe her exact words were: 'Those two could watch their kids turn into buffalo and they'd say it was just a phase.'"

"That sounds more like her." Dawn was about to add something about Sheila Rosenberg but then Andrew's voice spoke through her ear.

"Still no sign of anything. I'm beginning to think that maybe I was wrong."

Fred was back to business. "You don't think that he's going to show?"

"Maybe he's rethinking his strategy. Have you heard anything from the others?"

"I don't know. " Fred took out her cell phone and dialed. "Damn. I'm just getting noise. Anything on yours, Dawn?"

Dawn took out her own phone and did the same. "Nothing. Maybe the electronics is making the phones all wonky."

"Maybe." Fred headed towards the car door. "I'm going to try and see if walking a couple of blocks will improve the reception. Keep an eye on things here just in case."

By now Fred was outside the car and walking. Dawn could still hear her speaking as she walked away.

"Do you think Ida and I should leave?"

Dawn thought for a moment. "It's only five of eight. He may not show until later tonight."

"Maybe. Or maybe I've made a miscalculation."

"Your idea seems sound, Andrew." She could tell by the angle of the camera that Andrew was walking to another side of Ground Zero.

"But I didn't take into account the interest that and Earle, and Cooper for that matter, seem to have put into targeting Buffy and the others. Maybe that caused them to adjust their sights somehow."

"And change them to who?"

Andrew paused. "Willow. Faith." He paused again. "Maybe even your sister. "

Dawn had already considered this idea. "If he was going to..." She still couldn't quite stomach the concept. ".. kill Buffy, why didn't he just shoot her at the motel?"

Another pause. "I can't figure that either. But then we don't know who was behind the decision to pull the trigger there-- Earle or Bob."

Dawn was about to ask why it mattered so much which man had pulled the trigger when she heard a rapping at the back of the van. "Fred, is that you?" No response. She shrugged. Probably someone who wanted to wash the windows. "Is this back to your theory that Bob wants to make his victims suffer more?"

"If you wanted to hurt the whole group, Giles would probably make a perfect target. I don't know him nearly as well as the other Scoobies and I still feel like I've been punched in the gut."

Another rap. This time near the front of the van. Dawn was beginning to realize that she was probably going to have to tell whoever this guy was to get lost. So she moved into the front seat.

And saw him.

Dawn had had to face a lot of horrible things in her life though she was only seventeen. The sight of Dale Cooper looking at her through the windshield shouldn't have even rated compared to being tortured by an insane hell-god or seeing her mother's body. So she couldn't understand why she was frozen with fear. Maybe it was because of the small fleck of blood that was on his shirt sleeve. Or the fact that he had a smile on his face that could only be read as absolute madness.

Whatever it was, Dawn remained frozen for nearly three seconds. Long enough for him to shatter the side window with his left hand.

Dawn threw herself to the back seat, looking for a weapon. It took her another second to reach a broad sword that she could barely handle. She lifted it and pulled herself back into the front seat, bringing it down.

The sword was big enough that it would probably have cut Cooper in two had it connected. But somehow Cooper blocked it with both his hands and managed to yank it, blade first, into the front seat. It cut through his hands but he didn't even seem to notice that he was bleeding.

"Dawn! Dawn1 What's the matter?" Andrew's voice seemed to be coming from a different galaxy.

"Children shouldn't play with knives," Cooper admonished.

Dawn was preparing to defend herself -- she'd be damned if she let him take her without a fight -- when she looked in the driver side mirror. Dale Cooper was reflected there. But suddenly she saw another man's face. He had stringy gray hair and a messy blue jacket on. His eyes were filled with madness. The only thing that he had in common with the dark-haired young man who was in the car with her was that they were both laughing maniacally.

This wasn't even close to the scariest thing that she had ever seen and it only held her attention for less than five seconds. But it was just long enough for Cooper to grab her by the shoulders and push her into the wall of the van. She was still primed to resist him but somehow the force was far greater than she would have expected from one man. She hit the wall. Her last thought before falling into unconsciousness was: _Please don't let him touch me there. God, please don't let him—_

Then blackness.


	8. 7 Final Preparations

Chapter 8

9:17 pm

Buffy had faced a lot of horrible things over the past seven years: from a vampire so old his hands were cloven, to a hellgod who had seemed invincible, to the incarnation of evil itself. And though she had felt a lot of things, fear was relatively low on the meter. Normally when she was fighting the spirit of the warrior took over her body so completely that she felt balanced. If it hadn't she probably would have died in her first battle.

Facing death and the destruction of the world had been such constants that they didn't phase her. But that didn't mean that she had never been afraid over the past seven years. Oh no. When her mother had gone into the hospital for the first time, she had been afraid. When they had told her that the growth in her mother's head was a tumor, she had been afraid. And it had cost her. If hadn't been for Spike, that interstellar snot monster might have killed her. And when Glory had discovered that her sister was the Key, Buffy had been very nearly brought to her knees. She had never run from a fight before, but at the idea of losing her sister her only impulse had been to run and hide. Her grief and panic had nearly paralyzed her -- and that time it did kill her. Ever since she had come back from wherever she had been while dead, some part of her had one principle in the back of her mind: Protect Dawn. Eventually she had realized that her sister was independent and capable of handling herself in the field, so Buffy had managed to push that fear into the background. But it had never gone away.

She didn't know if knowing of Windom Earle and Dale Cooper's killing spree would have brought out the fear no matter what -- after all, something in her had gone funky when she had heard the ages of the murdered girls -- but she knew what had really started it.

Going through some of the papers Buffy had run across a picture of Teresa Banks, Bob's first real victim, pre-murder. She was attractive though plain. Not the kind of girl that you would look twice at. But Buffy had found herself staring at it. Maybe it was the hair or the eyes or just the fact that she was seventeen. But for some reason she had seen something that reminded her of Dawn.

She had made a silent promise: Whatever had killed those girls, man or monster, it would not touch Dawn. She had considered pulling rank and telling Dawn to go home -- especially after seeing her reaction to the killings -- but knew that she couldn't order Dawn to do anything.

Buffy had asked her if she was alright to do this. Dawn had thought about it for a few seconds -- long enough to give Buffy hope -- but she finally shook her head. "I can't just go home and hide under my bed when people are being hurt." Buffy would have argued, but she knew that she would have said the same.

So she had done her best to keep Dawn out of it -- until Giles had been shot. That had changed the target of her fear and anger. And it lasted a long time -- right until Mike had taken the group back to Wolfram & Hart. Then the panic and alarm had begun to rise -- but not enough to quell her rage. She had actually been relieved to hear that Dawn was out in the field -- she would probably be safer there then in the building.

She wouldn't have to see Buffy ki--handle these criminals.

Then she had seen the televisions. The tape.

And she knew. She knew even as she begged Angel to call Dawn that Bob had gotten her after all.

After that things had become blurry. The pain and rage and fear that she had been carrying had become a noise. She remembered getting in the car to go to the coffeehouse near where Dawn had been taken. She remembered the drive over, with Angel telling her they would catch him. She remembered arriving and seeing Fred holding a pack of ice to her head and thinking: "What happened to her?" But it all seemed like she was viewing this from somewhere outside herself. Even now as she watched the police and her friends and everyone going over the street looking for a hint or a trace of where Dawn was, she felt as if she was looking at all this from a great distance. This couldn't be happening to Buffy Summers, the once and future Slayer. It couldn't be.

Then she saw Andrew rush up to her and say, "Buffy, I think that I know..." She didn't hear the rest. Without being completely aware that she was doing it, Buffy grabbed Andrew and threw him against the wall. Suddenly she came back to herself. As she looked at the geeky young man, she decided she was going to lay an ass-whupping on him. It wouldn't help her find Dawn, it wouldn't stop this killer, but she would feel like she was doing something.

"Stop it!" Angel and Willow (Buffy didn't know how Willow had gotten here from the hospital and didn't much care) were both running towards her. Her only response was to kick Andrew in the stomach.

"Buffy, you can't do this!" Willow said.

She turned to face them. "Don't you tell me what I can't do." She turned back to Andrew. What she saw stopped her cold.

Buffy had seen a lot of surprising things in the past seven years, from learning that Jenny Calendar had been sent to watch Angel to learning that the Mayor of Sunnydale had made a deal with the devil. She had seen that Riley had been a military operative and that her sister had only been real for three months. But this was one that she didn't think she would ever see.

She had expected to see Andrew cowering and submissive to her wrath. Instead, the self-proclaimed geeky faux-villain was on his feet. He looked sad and he was wincing but there was a streak of defiance in his eyes that Buffy had never seen before. Or had never noticed.

"I understand that you're pissed. And God knows you have a reason to be." Andrew sounded upset but there was definitely steel in his tone. "If you want to take me apart after we stop Bob, I'll gladly take what you can give. But right now you have to understand something." He was right up in her face. "_Dawn isn't dead yet._ There is a good chance that we can find her before Cooper does anything that will cause permanent damage. But the only way this works is if you concentrate on finding her and not blaming the person who helped put her in this situation. Do you get that?"

For a very long moment it seemed Buffy didn't get that or wasn't going to. Then, after seconds that seemed hours long, Buffy dropped her fighting pose into something a less threatening. "Explain."

Andrew breathed. "All right. When Cooper took Dawn, he also stole the van. The van is a Wolfram & Hart vehicle. According to Fred, all Wolfram & Hart vehicles are equipped with tracking devices.."

Buffy turned to look for Fred. "Is this true?"

Fred walked over. "Basically it's an ultra advanced version of the Global Positioning System that you find in most luxury cars. The whole thing is lined to a computer in Wolfram & Hart."

"And you're sure that this can find Dawn?"

Fred swallowed as if she didn't want to say what was coming next. "We can locate the van easy enough. There is a very good chance, however, that Cooper will abandon the vehicle and travel on foot...to where ever he's going to take Dawn.""

Andrew moved forward. "I don't think he'll go that far with her."

"And what makes you the expert here?" Buffy snapped at Andrew some of her old anger coming back.

Andrew swallowed but he stuck to his guns. "Simple logic. Even in the craziest parts of L.A., you can't walk very far with a struggling girl and not leave a trail."

As Andrew spoke Buffy slowly found herself coming back to reality. Her logic began to reassert herself. For the first time Buffy noticed that Fred was still holding her head in her hands.

Fred became aware of the stare. "I don't know what Cooper hit me with, but I think he wanted me out of the picture."

Buffy looked at her. She was feeling something again. "You should probably go to the hospital."

"They're rerouting some of information on the van through one of the computers. As soon as they give me a lock on Dawn's location,. I'll go." Buffy must have given her a look because Fred added, "I owe her this much."

Willow turned towards Fred. "Really, I can handle---"

Fred stopped her. "I need to do this."

Buffy looked at her for a moment, then turned to the others. "Where's Mike?"

"He's with Wes," Angel answered.

"Get him over here. As soon as we find a location he's coming with us."

"You think he can handle this? He's looking kind of pale."

Buffy was about to fling a retort at him when she was interrupted.

"I will find the strength." Buffy hadn't even heard the old man approach.

"Are you sure that you can?" Wes asked.

Mike fixed him with a stare: "It's time that Bob and I finished this."

There was a pause. Then without speaking, everyone began to work. Buffy was able to concentrate but two thoughts kept flowing through her mind.

One was: _I will save her. I will._

The other one was: _One way or the other, when we find them this ends._

Unlike her sister, Dawn scared very easily.

In her defense most of the times that she remembered being scared hadn't actually happened. And even setting those aside a lot of frightening things had happened to her over the last three years that would have frightened any teenager with a pulse. You try dealing with the fact that you were very recently just a ball of energy being pursued by an insane hellgod. Or that your mother had a brain tumor. Or that your high school had been built right over a hellmouth.

All things considered Dawn thought that she had dealt with them very well. She had faced death so many times that the idea of her life ending didn't scare her. It upset her a lot, but it had started to lose its ability to frightened her.

So when she regained consciousness in an empty building with her hands tied behind her back, death wasn't her chief concern. She knew that Cooper/Bob had kidnapped her. And she knew that he would probably attempt to torture her for quite some time. There was no denying that this was a bad situation but, really, after facing down an army of uber-vamps this was low on her fear list.

No, Dawn wasn't afraid of being tortured. What was making her heart creep into her throat was the thing that had been taboo since this whole mess had begun. The thing that everybody had decided was the least important part of what Earle and Cooper were doing. The word that no one had said but everyone was thinking.

The word was 'Rape'.

Dawn had gotten her 'birds and bees' lecture at nine (or at least she remembered getting it) but going to junior high and high school in the age of AIDS and sexual harassment, she had gotten a pretty good idea on what 'safe' sexual intercourse was. Because she was the sister of a Slayer, she had also gotten a fair amount of instruction on beating undead attackers. On a couple of occasions, however, Buffy had also given her some pointers on how to handle human ones. The word 'rape' had only really been important as a concept to her once -- when she had learned what Spike had tried to do to Buffy before he had his soul. She had been beyond angry at Spike, but she had also been scared in a part of her she didn't think could be reached. The part of her that said,_ If this can almost happen to Buffy, what can stop it from happening to...anyone?_

Now, as she saw the man that had been Dale Cooper approaching her, she did something that she hadn't even tried to do since her mother had gone under the knife. The end result hadn't justified her faith, and she still was very unsure in her belief... But she prayed all the same.

_Please God, don't let him do this to me. I will take the torture and the beatings. I can live with the pain. But don't let him touch me down there I don't think I could survive it._

She was trying desperately to keep a blank expression and not reveal any sign of weakness. She didn't think that she was succeeding because Cooper's already predatory look became more vicious.

"Oh my, look at you little girl" His voice oozed sarcasm. "I've got you all trussed up and you're not showing a thing. You are one brave little toaster." He took out a very sharp kitchen knife. "I'm going to bleed all the bravery out of you."

He brought the knife down her chest. The blade cut through the front of her shirt but stopped well short of the skin. The next swipe gently scraped her stomach

But there was no blood.

"You won't feel a thing...until I want you too." Cooper sing-songed

He stepped behind her and brushed the knife against her arms. If there was any blood she didn't feel it.

"I can keep this up till Dawn breaks," he said.

Dawn felt that she was doing a really good job of holding it in...until she looked at Cooper. And saw another man.

She could still see Cooper but it was like there was some kind of screen projecting an image of someone else. It was the same man that she had seen in the mirror of the van-- stringy gray hair, dirty coat and jacket and a grin that would not have been out of place on a great white shark. Now she knew that there were more than two people in this building.

Bob was here, and she was at his mercy.

_Hurry Buffy. I don't know how long I have._

10:05 p.m.

Once Fred had fed the data into the computers, it was easy enough to locate the van. Cooper had driven through downtown L.A. towards the low rent section of the city. He had finally abandoned the vehicle less than ten miles from where he had grabbed Dawn. Nor had he made much of effort to hide the mobile unit. Either in his eagerness to go to work on Dawn he had grown careless or Bob wasn't very concerned about being found. Angel did not think that it was the former.

Buffy's hunch that Mike would be able to locate Bob was paying off. Even before they reached the van he began to moan the same ghastly sighs when they began tracking him. After they began to walk down the street, however, something unusual happened. Mike's heavy breathing began to ease and no longer walked as if he had a two ton weight on his back. Some people might have found that comforting but it disturbed Angel in a way the breathing hadn't. He didn't mention his concerns to Buffy because she was in no position to listen, so instead he turned to Willow and Wesley who were walking a little behind her with him.

"What do you think it means?"

"You mean Mike starting to sound normal." Wesley shook his head. "There are a number of possibilities. One is that some part of Gerard is reasserting himself."

"Can't be. Mike's still in charge. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to help us."

"Maybe he's recharging himself."

They looked at Willow.

"Well, he is going to confront someone that he hasn't dealt with in a very long time. Maybe his body is trying to ready itself for the battle."

Angel looked at the man in front of him. "That probably wouldn't last too long."

Off their looks he said, "Look at the guy. I don't care how strong whatever in him is, physically this man is no match for someone twenty years younger and with both arm."

"Maybe that's why Buffy's here. To help even things," said Wesley.

"You really think that, in her frame of mind, Buffy is capable of fighting Bob?"

"Maybe that's why _we're_ here," said Willow.

That should have encouraged Angel but he was still concerned—Bob had managed to run rings around them so far and now he had Dawn hostage. He was about to say as much when he noticed that Buffy and Mike had stopped.

"He's here," said Mike. Without the wheezing he sounded stronger, more vital.

Angel looked up. They had reached the low rent warehouses that made up that part of L.A. The buildings looked like they were being held together by string and memories. This particular warehouse looked like a strong wind could upend it without difficulty.

"Are you sure that this is the place?" asked Wesley.

Neither Buffy nor Mike spoke. Instead they gestured towards the roof. The sign on the top of the building informed them that the building had once been the property of Black Forest chewing gum.

"Real sense of humor this Bob guy." said Willow, rolling her eyes in disgust.

Buffy still didn't speak ."You smell that?" she said finally.

For a moment Angel didn't know what she was talking about. All his senses were picking up was the faint smell of cinnamon. Then he recognized it. It was the same smell that had been in the motel. In the excitement he hadn't noticed it but he did now...

The place had the stink of death on it.

Wesley moved up next to Buffy. "We can have them take the building." Gunn, Robin and some of the other Slayers had been discreetly following them since they had left Ground Zero.

Buffy shook her head. "If he senses a crowd of people he'll...he'll use the time to finish Dawn."

"All right. How many people do you want?" Willow asked.

Buffy seemed to think it over. But Angel knew Buffy. He knew she had decided before they had even come here. But he wasn't going to let her do it.

"You're not going in alone," he said.

Buffy looked at him. "He wants me."

"Why do we keep giving this guy what he wants?" Willow asked. "I'm not letting you go in there by yourself."

Buffy gazed at the others with a mixture of resignation and pride. She looked at them for a while.

"Okay, but stay behind me. No sense in giving the game away that soon."

They remained still for a moment. Then, with Buffy leading the way, they entered the warehouse for the final confrontation.


	9. 8 The Final Battle

Chapter 8

Willow didn't know that Angel and Faith had had a conversation about how to handle Cooper/Bob. Neither had thought to tell her. And they might have been right not too. As recently as two years ago if she had heard anyone talking about murder she would have been sick at the concept. Of course back then the idea that she might flay a man alive was as foreign to her as Cartesian dualism.

Had she known that Angel and Faith were considering taking Cooper out of the picture totally, she would have probably made the same argument that she had thought about on considering the same idea. Willow would have said that, while she had not taken a human life yet, Buffy was a certainly a big enough girl to deal with the ramifications. She would have said that taking a human life was wrong under all but the most extraneous circumstances, and that Buffy knew that. Then again, Willow had seen through Buffy's declarations that this wasn't bothering her and would have known that someone might have to intercede if Buffy was going to encounter Bob. But Willow still thought that she could take it.

Then they had gone to the motel. The seconds after Giles had been shot had been some of the worst in her life. For an instant she wasn't there, she was back in Sunnydale, and Tara had just fallen to the ground. It had taken almost all of her will to suppress the urge to revert and go screaming into the night. Being around Buffy had probably saved her from going to that dark place.

For the next ten hours she had stood watch over Giles' bed. Part of her reasons were wanting to be there to make sure he came through it all right, but a lot of it was to keep herself from doing anything that might be self-destructive. Xander, as was almost always the case, understood her and helped her stay focused. Not even the appearance of Earle seemed to shake her out of it.

It was when Wesley and the others had reappeared that she had managed to shake herself out of her near catatonia. Finally realizing that someone had to find a way to fight these monsters no matter how human they were, she had left the calm of Giles' bedside to try and help Buffy. Unfortunately Buffy was continuing her single-minded focus on stopping Bob and really wasn't listening to anybody -- something that would get her into trouble even if Cooper hadn't abducted Dawn.

Even though Willow was concerned about whether Buffy was up for it, Willow knew better than to suggest that she sit this out. But apparently some part of her was still thinking rationally because before they began the hunt Buffy pulled her aside. "This could get ugly, Will," she said bluntly.

"Yeah." No point denying it.

"I will not let him kill her."

"I know."

Buffy paused. "If it comes to that, don't try to stop me." Another pause. "I need to do this."

Willow knew that, if she had to, she could stop Buffy. And as someone who understood first-hand the destructive nature of grief, she knew that Buffy shouldn't do this. But she also knew that Buffy would never let her come if she thought Willow was going to be a problem, so she nodded.

All of which passed through Willow's head as they walked towards the back of the warehouse, simultaneously hoping for the best and expecting the worst.

The warehouse's interior was dark with spots of light coming from the lamps aligning the wall. Some of them flickered but Willow could still see -- barely.

"So the rabbits have been brought to ground," Dale Cooper's voice echoed through the warehouse. Willow blinked. About twenty feet in the distance she could a figure in the distance. Somehow Cooper had spotted them from in the murky light. Either Cooper had really great vision or this was yet another perk of being possessed by an evil demon: reason number 4,578 as to why demon possession is creepy.

Buffy and the others continued to walk towards Cooper/Bob. When they had closed the distance to ten feet, he spoke again: "That's close enough."

The light was still bad but Willow could see why Cooper/Bob was being firm. He was standing right behind Dawn with a butcher knife over her jugular. Angel moved an inch forward, testing the villain.

"If you want to kill her, by all means keep moving." Cooper/Bob pressed the knife tighter against her neck.

"Angel. Stay back." Buffy shoved him to the side.

"Ah, Anne. Here we are together at last." There was a horrible happiness in the man's voice.

"That's not my name," she said firmly.

"I'm pretty sure that the guy with the big knife makes the rules." He gave her a smile that would make a stronger person cave. "Besides, what's in a name? That which we will call a corpse by any other name would still be dead."

Buffy kept her eyes locked on her sister. "Are youâ Has he hurt you?"

Dawn focused on her sister's eyes.. She seemed to be holding on to her control by a thread but Willow could see the determination in her face. "I'll be fine as soon as you kick this guys ass."

"Brave words from such a little girl," Cooper/Bob said. "You know, for someone who really isn't your sister I can see a lot of her in you, Anne."

"Stop calling me that." Buffy didn't raise her voice but the menace was still there.

"Come on, what difference does the name make? Buffy or Anne, Angel or Angelus--"

"Dale or Bob," said Wesley. For a moment Willow thought that Cooper had winced, but he recovered very quickly.

"You know when I moved out of Leland I figured it would be years before I got another host that would be as much fun. Then Cooper" He laughed. "He tried to keep me down. Even thought that he was doing it for a while. But I work in mysterious ways. I struck from within. Getting past those lily-white morals, those protocols, all his beliefs in good. It wasn't easy but after a year of inward assault and all the drugs in his system." He laughed again, a little more maniacally." I just wore him down .By the time that idiot Earle came, he was ready for a spree."

"That's not the way I heard it." Willow looked at Angel in surprise. The vampire had a pensive look on his face. "I hear Earle did all the hard work. He pointed and you followed like a lapdog."

For a moment it seemed like this might have actually struck a nerve. But it was there and gone in a second. "Dear Windom. When I stole his soul and left him there, I figured we'd never meet again. He was more resilient than I gave him credit for."

His predator's grin resurfaced. "The man was an amateur at murder. He had no spirit for it. Right Angelus?"

Now it looked as if Cooper/Bob had rattled the vampire, but it was gone as quick. "You're talking to the wrong man if you want to compare yourself to me. You think that torturing and killing women makes you some kind of artist? You're just a pretentious hack with no skill at"

It happened so fast that Willow didn't even realize _what_ had happened. All she knew was that Angel was holding Cooper's knife in his hand. She felt a certain amount of fear when she looked back and saw that he was still poised and ready to kill. In the space of a few seconds, Bob had thrown his knife at Angel, taken out another and was poised over Dawn. He had moved with a speed Willow wasn't sure Buffy could match.

"You'd do well to make your beau shut up." There was no sign that anything had changed in his demeanor or speech but Willow knew that Bob was pissed. "You don't want to anger a man who has a knife at your sister's throat."

Buffy stood firm. "You wouldn't dare end your fun so soon."

"I have a pretty good background in anatomy. It's relatively easy to cut someone's throat and still be kept alive. Isn't that right Wes?"

Wes gritted his teeth but said nothing.

"What? Not even a, 'Get away from her you bloody bastard?'" Bob laughed. "I've really got you cowed. A Slayer, a killer vampire and the world's most powerful witch. And none of you is moving."

"How do you know so much about us?" Angel asked.

"You're never going to know. The police might pry, you might put bamboo under my fingernails but I am never going to tell my secrets." Bob looked around. "And why should I? I've got you on the ropes."

"Maybe them. But not me."

Everyone turned towards the voice. Willow felt a hand pushing her aside as Mike -- who had been standing in the shadows since they had arrived -- walked towards the being that had once enslaved him.

This time there was no doubt about it. the expression on Cooper/Bob's face definitely showed surprise. And something else. Since they had arrived Bob had had a look of certainty that things were going to go his way. Now it looked that Bob was beginning to have doubts that he was going to win

"Hello old timer. Come to join the tea party?" Bob's voice was still cocky but not as sure as it had been a moment ago

"That's no way to talk to someone you once called your child."

This was new. Willow had thought that parent-child relationships in the demon world only occurred among vampires. Clearly this wasn't the case.

"That's old news. You lost the faith long ago. We have nothing in common now."

"I had hoped that when I freed myself from your influence I would be free of you." Mike's voice was strong, not raspy or wavering in the slightest. "But despite my best efforts, our paths have continually crossed. I realize now that there is a reason for this."

"And I suppose you're going to say that it's to stop me. News flash, old man, you couldn't stop me when you had both arms. What makes you so sure that you can do it now?"

"You are an offense to the White and must be blotted out."

Without any warning, the doors to the warehouse slammed shut. Willow would have thought that there had been a strong breeze but the night had been windless. She turned to the confrontation. Then she blinked as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Cooper was standing beside Dawn. But he wasn't the only one. The image of a man with white hair with madness in his eyes was overlapping him. Coming off him was the sensation of evil. Willow wasn't sure but she thought that this was Bob in his real form.

It was surprising but not shocking. What stopped her in her tracks was Gerard. The same thing had happened to him. Only the man overlying Gerard was tall with jet hair and a barrel chest, like a lumberjack softening into retirement. And like Bob, Mike (she knew that was who she was looking it) had an aura too -- one that radiated good. But Willow knew how to measure these things and she could tell that Mike's aura was less powerful than Bob's.

Then the overlays were gone and it was only Bob and Mike facing each other.

"The only person whose end you will bring about is your own," said Bob.

"The black will fall to the white," Mike replied.

There was a moment of silence. Willow did not think that the tension could get any thicker. Then Bob let out a piercing yell, raised the knife and charged Mike. Mike walked up to Angel, took the knife that Bob had thrown at Angel, raised it and ran at Bob.

The second that Bob left her side Buffy ran to Dawn and untied her. Willow noticed this out of the corner of her eye but most of her attention was focused on Mike and Bob.

The two men--- no one could think what else to call them--- were circling like predators trying to find a chink in the other's armor. Bob made the first move running up to him and thrusting the blade forward. Mike retaliated by dodging and swinging at Bob's head, missing his forehead by an inch.

It took a few seconds for Willow to realize why this didn't seem ridiculous, unlike the knife scene in West Side Story. It was because you knew that was a fake -- it seemed choreographed. This close, however, you could almost smell the hatred and desperations. This was mortal combat, a duel to the death -- even if that death didn't necessarily mean the end of the fighters.

It soon became very clear to everybody, however, that Bob had the advantage. And it had nothing to do with good versus evil. It had to do with the hosts the spirits were inhabiting. Cooper was twenty years younger than Gerard and had FBI training. He would have been dangerous without being possessed. The being inhabiting Gerard could not make up for the fact that he was older, sick and had only one arm. It was taking all his strength just to hold on to the knife.

Willow looked around the room. Buffy was off to one side holding Dawn, who seemed scared but otherwise unhurt. On the other side were Wesley and Angel.

The absurdity of what was happening finally overwhelmed her. She ran to the guys

"Maybe this is a stupid question, but why aren't we helping Mike?"

For a moment Wesley's face reflected the stuck up Watcher that he had once been. "This is one-on-one fighting. It goes against all rules of combat."

"Oh, so its okay to let a being that has killed at least a dozen people to fight against a one-armed old man?"

"It's more than that. Whatever Bob is, Mike is some version of it as well. Maybe they're supposed to settle this." Wesley reasoned.

"Even if it's going like this?" asked Angel. Everyone looked toward the front. Mike was on the floor with his knife fallen by his side. Bob stood over him, triumphant.

"Foolish little man. Did you really think that cutting your arm off would really set you free of me ? I could have crushed you any time had I chosen to. " Bob put the knife to Mike's throat . "Now I will see that you trouble me no longer."

"Why are you wasting your time on him?" Everyone turned to the source of the voice. Buffy was standing across from him, alone. Only now did Willow realize that Dawn was with the rest of them. "Your business has been with me from the start." She began walking towards him.

Bob looked up. "Yes. Yes it has." In one swift motion, he slashed Mike's throat. By the time Buffy screamed "No!" Mike was lying on the ground bleeding from the neck.

"Amazing. You have known this man less than twelve hours, yet you care for him as if he fought beside you for years" Bob lifted the knife with the old man's blood still on it.

"I protect the innocent. Something you could never comprehend." said Buffy.

"Yes." He paused. "I see my attempts to break your spirit were useless." The insane grin appeared again. "I'll have to settle for breaking every bone in your body."

He threw the knife at Buffy. She dodged it easily but before she could react Bob had begun to charge her. Less than six inches away from her, he stopped. He threw the first punch. To Willow's surprise, he knocked her back a couple of inches.

"What? You thought that my skills stopped at murder?" He didn't wait for an answer before they began to fight.

The last time Buffy had fought someone who was basically human, it had taken her three tries and a weapon of extraordinary power for her to emerge victorious. This battle wasn't going nearly as bad, but Buffy did not seem to be at the top of her game. A lot of her punches just missed and she wasn't dodging nearly as quickly as she could.

"You know â I must say I expectedâ. a lot more from you." Bob was doing a good job of talking between jabs. he didn't even seem to be out of breath. "I expected

you to be Mohammed Ali, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Catwoman all rolled into one.

And look at you, you're barely" Buffy kicked him in the stomach but this only winded him. "â worth the trouble."

Buffy seemed a little rattled but she wasn't showing it. "Well I've fought hundreds of creatures â demonsâvampiresâand undead" she rolled to the side. "I never got an ideaâ how well I didâ because they allâ died before they could criticize me."

"Well, now's your chance." Bob said, bobbing and weaving.. "Even if you beat Cooperâ I'll be back in some form or the otherâ so I'll tell you whereâ you screwed up."

"I findâ when demons talk trashâ they don't have crapâto back it up."

Buffy punctuated the last words with a roundhouse to the jaw. -- a blow hard enough to draw blood.

Cooper stopped talking then, but didn't stop smiling or throwing punches.

Then suddenly he hit her with a one-two combination that staggered her. Buffy didn't fall, but she did say, "Anybody who has an idea how to stop this guy might want to jump--"

Before Buffy could finish her sentence, Angel leapt into the fray.

"So you're fighting with the amateur," said Bob, not the least disconcerted.

Angel put on his vampire face. "I'm gonna show you what a real demon can do"

"Fine. "Once again the true face of Bob overlaid that of Cooper. "Game on." The two of them went at it.

Wesley moved closer to Willow. "All of this fighting is going to be moot if we don't find a way to destroy Bob."

"Well if we could get him to leave Cooper's body, I might be able destroy it."

"Do you know a spell that would act as an exorcism?" Wesley talked faster. Bob was now fighting Angel and Buffy with no sign that he was tiring.

"I can try one." Willow quickly chanted in Latin: "Cast this evil out from this place. Set free the evils one true face!."

She knew even before the blast of energy left her body that it was the correct spell. The magic wave hit Cooper in the chest -- and stayed there.

Bob laughed. "Silly girl. Did you really think that your puny magic could defeat me?"

"He's right." Everyone turned towards Angel. Willow sensed something in his tone. An idea? "The spell only works if you say the magic words." Angel smiled. "The real magic words."

Willow looked at Bob's face and saw something she had hoped she would see long ago: Fear.

"No! Don't you dare!"

Hoping his hunch would work he said, "Fire, walk with me."

The second that Angel finished the phrase, the sparks that should have appeared when she had cast the spell arrived. Cooper began to writhe in pain. The image of Bob rose from the body of the former FBI agent and along with a scream that was equal parts fury, anguish and dismay. The image of the man turned into an owl.

Then it was gone.

Cooper fell to the floor, moaning in a kind of anguish that was deeper then the pain that he was feeling. Willow could see that Buffy and Angel had Cooper -- and that's who it was, she could sense that Bob wasn't there anymore -- under control, so she ran over to the other injured man.

Gerard lay gasping in pain. Willow tried to stop the bleeding but they could both tell that it would be futile.

"Iâ I didn't thinkâthat it could be done." The voice was raspy and was getting weaker. Soon both host and spirit would be gone.

"Try not to talk. We can get you to a hospital"

Mike shook his head. "This host has served me well but it -- it is as tired as I am. I think that it is time for us both to rest."

Willow shook her head "It's not right."

Mike lifted his hand and put it on her wrist, holding on with surprising strength. "This body has not had any real peace for decades. Let us go."

Willow found that for some reason she was crying. There was no reason for it, it wasn't a deep agonizing loss, but her eyes were wet all the same.

"Youâ you and your friendsâ are true champions of the white lodge. I was --proud to be able to fight along side you."

The grip on Willow's wrist went limp. Gently Wesley took his hand off her wrist and placed it at his side. The two of them went to Dale Cooper to make sure that he didn't try to run. Not that he would. Whatever power that had been killing young women for years was gone.

The nightmare was over.

-----


	10. Epilogue

Epilogue

One Week Later

When Angel looked up, he saw someone that he didn't think he was going to see.

"Buffy. What are you doing here?" Since the confrontation in the warehouse, Angel had tried to give Buffy space. A lot had happened in the time while they had been looking after Cooper and Earle, and everyone was still raw. "How's Giles doing?" It was a lame way to start the conversation, he knew how the Watcher was but he knew that they needed to start somewhere.

Buffy smiled. It was wan, but at least it was something. "He's finally out of bed. The doctors don't think that there will be any complications, but it'll still be another week before they discharge him."

"Good." A pause. "How's Dawn doing?"

The next smile had a little more pain in it. "Well, as she puts it, being kidnapped by Cooper was worse than the time Harmony took her prisoner but better than the time Glory tried to stick her in a giant lock and twist her." Buffy actually managed a chuckle. "I think that she's going to come through this okay."

"Will you?"

Buffy chose to ignore the question. "What happened at Cooper's sentencing?"

Angel sighed. When Bob had finally left Cooper, he had revealed that he still possessed the strong personality that he'd had when he had worked for the bureau. He did not deny his role in what the tabloids were calling 'The Route 299 Killings'. He admitted that while he had not been fully coherent when committing the murders, he had carried out the actions that Bob had wanted. Several members of the staff of Angel-Slayer Inc had offered to testify in his favor, as well as several members of the Twin Peaks police department. Cooper had refused: "On some level I knew what I was doing. Perhaps I could have done nothing to stop Bob, but after Earle broke me out I made no effort. I need to pay for what I have done."

"He's going to Folsom. Life without the possibility of parole."

Buffy nodded. "Do you think he deserves it?"

Angel sighed. "At the basic level he was a murderer."

"Do you think that he deserves it?" she said again.

Angel considered it for a minute. "Not all of it, no. Whatever thing was in him -- whatever Bob was -- that's who the real killer was ."

"And we stopped it, didn't we."

Angel wasn't sure whether that was a question or not. "It's gone and it's not coming back." He tried to put all the surety that he could muster into his response

Buffy walked forward a pace or two. "Does Cooper have any idea how Earle got the information on all of us or how he even managed to get out of the black lodge in the first place?"

Angel sighed. This too had been a source of frustration. "Cooper says that Earle had told him that the all-powerful had set him free and put them on the straight and narrow path."

"Great. You're telling me that Windom Earle got some of that old time religion? Or are these just more ravings of a madman?"

"Whatever source it was, it had personal access to all our files and knew about the closed-circuit security we have in the building. It was probably an inside job."

"By someone alive or dead?" Buffy asked.

"We're looking in to it."

"Not that that'll do much good. If there's one thing these guys are good at, it's disappearing in the wind. " Buffy sighed. "It's enough to try your faith."

Angel took this in. A stranger might have thought that this was what really had Buffy upset, but he knew her far too well. "What's wrong?"

"You mean aside from the fact that Giles and my sister both nearly ended up dead because of me?"

Angel knew that that was only part of the problem and he decided to follow it up. "Buffy, I thought you got through the whole carrying-the-weight-of-the-world-on-your-shoulders. Dawn and Giles both knew the job was dangerous when they signed up for it. They aren't puppets that you could play with. They chose to show up. They chose to fight."

Buffy considered this. "That doesn't change the facts that I put their lives in peril for no reason."

"Buffy--"

"Angel, this was a police matter. Yes there was some spooky stuff, and yes we were the target. But there was no reason that, once we figured out where the two of them were, we couldn't have handed it over to the police."

"They wouldn't have been capable of dealing with Bob and you know it." When Buffy seemed about to protest, he added: "We both know that with certain things the police can only upset the situation. More people would have gotten hurt."

"More people did get hurt. Gerard ended up dead. Giles is in the hospital. I almost..." Buffy shut her mouth suddenly.

Angel knew that it was time to bring it out: "You almost killed Cooper."

Buffy hesitated. "He was going to kill Dawn."

"You almost killed Earle."

"He almost killed Giles."

"You were ready to kill him before then." Angel knew what he had to say next was sensitive, mainly because he wasn't sure why it had gotten to Buffy so deeply. "You were up in arms when you heard how girls were tortured and sexually assaulted."

Buffy swallowed . Angel mentally went over the last sentence in his head and something clicked. Not completely, because he wasn't sure when or with who, but he thought he knew why this had bothered her.

"When did it happen?"

"What?"

He knew that he was on the right track when Buffy couldn't look him in the face. "Come on, Buffy. I left L.A. for you to have a life. Sometimes in life bad things happen to people. Whether or not they have superpowers."

There was a struggle going on within Buffy between her memory and her guts. Something that she had managed to bury for a while.

"I told myself I didn't have to deal with it. The First was far more important than something that almost happened." Buffy's voice was meandering, on the verge of cracking. "He said it wouldn't happen again. And he had to have been telling the truth he had his soul back..."

And then it hit him with the force of a sledgehammer. After he had learned that Buffy and Spike had been together, Angel had told himself that he could deal with it. This, however, affected him in ways that he didn't think would have been possible.. "When did he do it?" His voice was quiet, but something primal in him had been disturbed.

"Angel, it was over a year ago..."

"_When did he do it?"_

Buffy sighed. "Last April. The others had just found about our relationship. He got drunk, he came to my house, he did something that he instantly regretted."  
"Damn it!" Instinctively Angel knew that this wasn't helping Buffy get over her trauma but he couldn't seem to care. "I'd stake the bastard if he wasn't already dead!"

"Well he is, so you can't." Buffy paused. Angel slammed his hand on his desk. A small smile appeared on her face. "I'm really glad I told you. I can feel the burden that I've been bearing just lifting away."

Angel managed to emerge from his black mood enough to realize that Buffy must be doing better if she was able to joke about it. "I'm sorry." Then realizing that he had to follow up on it. "How badly did he hurt you?"

Buffy took a deep breath. "He didn't really. By the time it was about to get bad, he realized what he was doing and ran off. I never got a chance to deal with it. Next time I saw him, he had his soul back. What with Willow going dark and the coming of the First, I never really got a chance to deal with it outside of my head."

By now Angel had regained his equilibrium. "You should have talked to somebody."  
"I know... but I thought I had dealt with it. I thought that I was past it" Buffy sighed again. "Guess I really wasn't."

"There usually aren't any easy ways with these kinds of things. Usually it comes after a lot of pain." Angel paused. "If it comes at all."

Buffy thought for a moment. "It seems that for as long as I can remember I've always had this power. I've always been stronger than most people. And as long as I concentrated on killing vampires and demons, I thought that it was good. But... after what happened to Willow, what I nearly did to her, I realized what I really was."

"To have this kind of power over people...to end a persons life. That's a power beyond anything you know." Angel looked up. "I said something like that to Faith four years ago, but I guess it holds true no matter which Slayer you tell it too."

"Big difference is she got off on it. It scares the hell out of me."

"It scared the hell out of her, too. She just had a different way of reacting to it." Angel glanced at Buffy. "Can you deal with it?"

Buffy looked at him so intensely that it almost made him uncomfortable. "I'm going to need some time. I need to think about this."

"You want to take some time off?"

"You can run the place without me." It wasn't a question.

"We can manage."

Buffy stood still for a moment, as if she was thinking of something else to say. Then she began to leave. "See ya."

She left. She hadn't said when she was coming back or even if she was coming back. And though Angel really wanted to know, he let her go.

He knew that there are some decisions you have to reach on your own. Evil comes in many forms. .

And as Dale Cooper and Angel both knew the greatest darkness can come from within.

The End

----


End file.
